September 29, 1911] 



SGIENGE 



411 



Atlas. Volume V. 46.5 cm. Published 

 under the patronage of the Eoyal Geograph- 

 ical Society, Edinburgh. 1911. 

 This handsome folio contains a limited text 

 .■and " a series of maps illustrating the distribu- 

 tion of over seven hundred families, genera 

 and species of existing animals." The text is 

 ■divided as follows: I., General Principles of 

 Distribution (24 pp.) ; II., Historical and Geo- 

 graphical (84 pp.) ; III., Zoological (M pp.) ; 

 and Bibliography (11 pp.). The 36 double- 

 page plates following are mostly divided to 

 include six world maps each, thus making 

 about 200 maps in all. " All the families of 

 mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, to- 

 gether with several of the more important 

 genera and species, have been dealt with, while 

 the work embraces in addition most of the 

 families of fishes and a selection of families 

 and genera of molluscs and insects." Two 

 plates sho'w the zoogeographical regions ac- 

 cording to various authors, while another indi- 

 cates diagrammatically the vertical and lati- 

 tudinal distribution of life and inset maps 

 illustrate prevailing vegetation, ocean currents 

 and bathy-orographical configuration. 



As a contribution to the subject of zoogeog- 

 Taphy, the work makes no serious pretensions, 

 being strictly a compilation from existing 

 published data, and as such is to be judged 

 like a geography or a dictionary. In scope and 

 finish, it surpasses anything previously at- 

 tempted and will doubtless fill in large meas- 

 ure the place which has long been waiting for 

 such a work, both in special and in general 

 libraries. The great advances in knowledge 

 of the distribution of life made in recent dec- 

 ades render a graphic accounting of this sort 

 particularly welcome. The difiiculties of fully 

 attaining the desired object, however, are very 

 great. Many groups, even of the higher ver- 

 tebrates, have not been thorouglily studied 

 from the distributional standpoint and only 

 in few instances are the data to be found col- 

 lated for use. Instead they are widely scat- 

 tered, often extending into the literature of 

 several tongues and variously concealed among 

 irrelevant matter. On this account, perhaps 

 one should not assume too critical an attitude 



toward the detailed results of a necessarily 

 involved task subject to the limitations of 

 time and generalized authorship. To be be- 

 yond particular criticism, such a comprehen- 

 sive work could be produced only by the com- 

 bined effort of a number of specialists. 



One may readily understand and excuse 

 omissions in a work of this nature, but gratu- 

 itous extensions of distribution can not be 

 passed so lightly, for misgivings arise as to the 

 methods pursued. The authority, for example, 

 which led to the extension of the range of the 

 jaguar over the whole peninsula of Lower 

 California must have been one which stated 

 things in very general terms. The same may 

 be said of carrying the distinctive color for 

 the raccoon up the coast of British Columbia 

 and Alaska to the base of the Alaska penin- 

 sula — a matter of over 1,000 miles of distribu- 

 tion without basis in fact. That this is not a 

 mere slip is indicated by a statement of the 

 same error in the text. The sewellels {Aplo- 

 dontia) are given a range from Puget Sound 

 to San Diego and the pocket gophers (Geo- 

 myidse) cover Vancouver Island and the coast 

 of British Columbia north to the southern 

 boundary of Alaska, considerable deviations 

 from the real conditions. Although the re- 

 viewer has given more hasty and less com- 

 petent scrutiny to the maps of groups other 

 than the Mammalia, there are indications that 

 no greater degree of accuracy obtains among 

 them. One instance may be cited in the 

 Insecta in the ranges of the well-kno-wn gen- 

 era of mosquitoes, Anopheles and Stegomyia. 

 The former is carried north to Hudson Bay 

 and the latter to central Wisconsin, both 

 somewhat beyond the limits known. In view 

 of these shortcomings and others which might 

 be mentioned, it is evident the maps can not 

 be trusted for finer points of distribution; but 

 they are so well executed and so useful in their 

 general bearings that one almost feels tempted 

 to withhold detailed criticism. 



The text is brief but somewhat more than a 

 mere explanation of the maps. In discussing 

 the general subject, it is interesting to note 

 that although they adopt the classic divisions 

 of Wallace and accord first and most promi- 



