No. 557] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



311 



should result, on the average out of every 16 grains in the first 

 generation, 3 purple, 1 red and 12 white grains. I do not doubt 

 that the calculation could be made with equal rapidity and 

 accuracy if the small letters were omitted and the capital letters 

 used in the same significance. The cross would then be: 

 CCPI X RRPI. The greatest difficulty with this plan would 

 come in designating the white now known as crpi, unless we 

 employ a mere dash, — . It is possible that there is some 

 simple way of applying Castle's scheme to such a case as this, 

 a way which I have stupidly overlooked or perhaps I have not 

 understood the scheme at all. If there is some simple termi- 

 nology that is workable. I shall be glad to use it, but I must con- 

 fess to being suspicious of very simple formula? for the complex 

 phenomena of inheritance. ' R.A.Emerson 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRI- 

 CULTURE IN WYOMING UPON THE BIRD FAUNA 



Wyoming is an interesting field of inquiry for the zoologist, 

 not only because it is new and unexplored, but because changing 

 agricultural conditions in the state have unbalanced the fauna, 

 so that new adjustments are taking place. 



This is particularly true of the birds, and since going to the 

 state two years ago, I have been collecting data from various 

 sources to learn to what extent the former distribution of the 

 birds has been affected. 



The larger part of Wyoming remains practically unchanged 

 as yet by the presence of man, but numerous towns have sprung 

 up, with the attendant planting of shade trees, which furnish 

 good nesting places for birds, and the same may be said of the 

 ranches. It is in these restricted areas that the changes in 

 adjustment may be expected to be most manifest. 



Again the increased raising of grain in many localities has 

 produced a more abundant food supply for birds which live 

 largely upon seeds. 



Old residents of the state, and collectors whose experience 

 extends over a period of several years, are almost universally 

 of the opinion that certain birds are much more abundant now 

 than formerly. In their replies to circular letters sent out, 

 they have frequently specified the species which have 

 affected in this way. It will be readily seen that those 



