208 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 85 



faunal and economic ornithology it is a most welcome addition to 

 our literature, and furnishes a model for similar works in other 

 places. We congratulate the authors. l. j. 



Some Birds of the Fresno District, California. By John G. Tyler. 

 The Cooper Ornithological Club. Pacific Coast Avifauna Num- 

 ber 9. Hollywood, October 1, 1913. 



This paper makes no claims to completeness, but is rather pre- 

 sented now that it may furnish a working basis for a future com- 

 plete survey of the region which occupies the exact geographical 

 center of the state. It is a lowland of not over 400 feet elevation, 

 and lies within the Lower Sonoran Zone. The author states that 

 the steady reduction of the swampy areas by drainage marks the 

 doom of sudh nesting birds as depend upon the cover afforded by 

 such a swampy environment. The check-list of species, which pre- 

 cedes the General Account of the Species, gives 161 species. The 

 treatment is systematic, and each species named is accompanied 

 with copious annotations relating to the occurrences, relative abund- 

 ance, migration, nesting, food habits, and many side lights upon the 

 life of the birds. We are seldom treated, in a paper of this sort, 

 with sudh a wealth of interesting things as this author presents. 

 May his tribe increase! In paper, typography, and general appear- 

 ance this latest number of the California Avifauna series maintains 

 the Ihigh standard set at the inception of the series. l. j. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Three papers by Edgar A. 

 Meams. 



Vol. 61, No. 10. Descriptions of four new African Thrushes of the 

 Genera Planesticus and Geocichla. August 11, 1913. One is a new 

 species — Planesticus helleru — from Mount Mbololo, altitude 4,000 

 feet, east of Mount Kilimanjaro, British East Africa, collected No- 

 vember 9, 1911, by Edmund Heller, on the Paul J. Rainey African 

 Expedition. The other described forms [are subspecies, one of 

 Planesticus, the others Geocichla. 



Vol. 61, No. 11. Descriptions of six new African Birds. August 

 30, 1913. " Four of the forms here described are from the collec- 

 tion made by the Childs Frick African Expedition, 1911-12 ; and two 

 are from the Smithsonian African Expedition, 1909-10 collection, 

 made under the direction of Col. Theodore Roosevelt." Five were 

 oollected by the author and one by Childs Frick. Five are new sub- 

 species of Cisticola, one of Pyromelana. 



Vol. 61, No. 14. Descriptions of Five New African Weaver-Birds 

 of the Genera Othyphantes, Hypargos, Aidemosyne, and Lagonos- 

 ticta. September 20, 1913. " Four of the forms here described are 

 from the collections made by the Childs Frick African Expedition, 



