NOTES AND LITERATURE 



MAMMALOGY 

 Nelson's Monograph of the North American LeporicUe. Mam- 

 malogists owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. B. W. Nelson for his 

 recent monographic revision of the hares and rabbits of North 

 America, 1 the first revision of the group as a whole since the 

 publication of Allen's monograph of this -roup in 1*77. Mr. 



environments to which the different groups of speeies aiv sub- 

 jected, through his many years' experience as ;m explorer and 

 collector, covering a wide area, embracing Arctic Alaska, the 

 arid southwestern United States. Lower California, and the 

 whole of Mexico, including the tropical coast lands as well as 

 the plateau region. The monograph is based on the careful 

 study of nearly 6,000 specimens, all of the material contained 

 in the principal museums of America having been examined. 



Museum. This is an increase of nearly SO over the * number 

 known in 1877. 



The introduction (pp. 9-61) deals with the economic rela- 

 tions of the American rabbits to agriculture; the use of the 

 names rabbit and hare: the condition of the young at birth: the 

 distribution of the genera and species; their habits and diseases; 

 their color patterns, molts and seasonal changes of color: sexual, 

 individual and geographic variation: their classification, and 

 keys to the species and subspecies. 



animals to vegetation, through injury to young trees, both in 

 orchards and newly planted forests: and their food value, 

 which, as is well known, is considerable, millions of rabbits being 



Merriam, Chief of Bureau of Biological Survey. North American Fauna, 

 No. 29, August 31, 1909. 8vo, pp. 1-314, pi. i-xiii, and 19 text figures. 



