1893.] Recent Literature. 991 
were first proposed by Baird, added to by Cope, and divided by Ver- 
rill and Allen, which correspond in great measure with the geological 
divisions of the continent, and which arein part divided by lines 
approximately meridianal He regards the primary faunal divisions 
as corresponding in great measure with parallels of latitude. Thus bis 
Sonoran region includes the Sonoran and Austroriparian of Cope, 
which thus extends from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. But he 
recognizes the two divisions as of distinct though subordinate value, 
calling them respectively, the arid and humid districts. He does not 
adopt the Pacific nor the central regions. Dr. Merriam admits that 
his system does not express the relations of the aquatic vertebrates. 
But a system which does not take these into account must be defective. 
Moreover it is not difficult to show that the Batrachia and Reptilia as 
well as the fishes sustain the system of Baird and Cope, and Dr. J. A. 
Allen has shown in a review of Dr. Merriam's paper (published in the 
Auk) that the birds do also. The geologic history of the continent has 
had everything to do with the origin of this distribution of life, so that 
the system which conforms to it is likely to be the correct one. 
In regard to the birds observed during the Death Valley Expedition 
of 1891, Mr. A. K. Fisher writes as follows : 
* Baird's woodpecker ( Dryobates scalaris bairdii) was quite common 
among the tree yuecas on the Mohave Desert at Hesperia, and its range 
was extended northward to Vegas Valley, Nevada, and the valley of 
the Santa Clara, in southwestern Utah, by Dr. Merriam. The vermil- 
lion fly-catcher also was secured in the same valley, though previously 
unknown north of Fort Mohave, Arizona. The Texas nighthawk 
(Chordeiles texensis) was found to be a common summer resident in all 
the valleys east of the Sierra Nevada from Owens Valley, California, 
to St. George, Utah, where Dr. Merriam secured the eggs. It was 
taken also in the San Joaquin Valley, California, near Bakersfield. 
Scott’s oriole (Icterus parisorum) is another species whose range was 
carried northward from a short distance above our southern border in 
California to about latitude 38?, whereit was common in places among 
the tree yuccas, and also on the slopes of some of the desert ranges as 
high as the junipers and pifions. Costa’s humming-bird ( Claypte costo) 
was very common whever water occurred throughout the desert region, 
ranging northward nearly to latitude 38?, and eastward to the Beaver- 
dam Mountains, Utah. Its nest was frequently found in the low 
bushes and cactuses on the hill sides near springs and streams. 
“The discovery that the gray-crowned finch (Leucosticte tephrocotis) 
breeds in the southern Sierra and in the White Mountains is especially 
