May, 1901 I 
THE CONDOR 
85 
Pacific Coast Avifauna No II is a neatly 
composed “List of the Land Birds of Santa 
Cruz County, California.’’ The author, R. C. 
McGregor, has not only drawn from his own 
field observations, but has also incorporated 
the notes of several others who have collected 
in the county. All available published ac- 
counts are made use of, as well; so that we may 
consider this list to enumerate all the species 
ever found within the county. The authori- 
ties quoted are always carefully cited in foot- 
notes, while pleasing conservatism is shown in 
the treatment of doubtful records. The anno- 
tations are mostly brief, consisting of nesting 
and migration dates, comparative abundance, 
distribution, etc. 
The nomenclature presented in this paper 
strikes one as too much of an improvement on 
the A. O. U. Checklist. Nearly every lately 
proposed change is adopted without question. 
The discrimination by name of such closely 
allied “genera’* as Nuttallornis awA Horizopiis 
seems to us rather more of a burden than con- 
venience. We also note that there is a con- 
fusing instability in the use of vernacular 
names. The millenium of permanency in 
nomencEt'ure seems further off than ever! 
The “Introduction’’ includes a brief but 
valuable account of the “P'anual Position of 
Santa Cruz Cruz County,’’ by W. K. P'isher. 
Avifauna No. II is certainly an important ad- 
dition to the ornithological literature of the 
.State. — J. G.- 
So staid an ornithologist as Richard C. Mc- 
Gregor has, for a time, forsaken his trajs of 
bird skins, the scaljiel and the rule to ])ay tri- 
bute to Cupid. On Wednesday, .^pril 10, Mr. 
McGregor was united in marriage -to Mrs. 
Edith M. French of Palo Alto, the ceremony 
being performed in the presence of a few in- 
timate friends in San Francisco. Miss Josie 
Hart attended the bride, while' Chas. M. Man- 
non acted as groomsman. Mr. McGregor’s 
ornithological C07ifreres extend to him and his 
bride a goodly measure of well wishes, and 
trust that his already active work in ornithology 
will be augmented by this acquisition of a help- 
meet. 
That the zealous ornithologist is sometimes 
misjudged by an unsympathetic public, Don- 
ald A. Cohen, the well-known Alameda orni- 
thologist can testify. Toward the latter part 
of March, in company with a fish-basket of 
generous dimensions, Mr. Cohen and his 
brother, a camera artist, wheeled through the 
town of Haywards, e 7 i 7 'oute to the aerie of a 
Prairie Falcon in the near-by bills. It so hap- 
pens that the trout season in California opens 
on April i, and a watchful peace officer, con- 
cluding that a fish-basket thus early in the 
season augured evil, followed the naturalists a 
warm, lengthy and interesting chase, only to 
have the utility of the fish-basket to the oolo- 
gist explained to him most courteously at the 
end of the chase! 
Ornithologists will hail with satisfaction the 
announcement that the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion will complete the Life Plistories of North 
American Birds, begun by the late Major Chas. 
FL Ben dire who completed two volumes before 
his death. Dr. W. L. Ralph, Honorary Cur- 
ator of the Department of Oology and a close 
personal friend of Major Bendire, \yill have 
charge of the work and has issued requests for 
notes on the life history and nesting habits of 
A. O. U. species and subspecies No. 514 to 635 
inclusive, which will embrace the third volume 
of this superb work. Dr. Ralph’s field ex- 
perience doubtless renders him the most 
available person to take up the uncompleted 
work of Major Bendire, and he should be ac- 
corded every assistance by field workers in the 
West who jiossess, in some cases, almost ex- 
clusive notes concerning many little-know 11 
species. 
W W ® 
THE PROPER N.VME FOR THE K.ADIAK 
S.WANNA SP.VRROW. 
Bonaparte’s Passcrculiis anthimis is 
from “Kadiak, Russian America:’’ 
Conipte Rendu, Dec. 1853, p. 920. It is 
compared with Passcrculiis alandinus, 
described on p. 918 from “California,” 
as being very similar but with more 
slender beak, head suffused with yellow, 
and beneath pale rufescent, more spot- 
ted. It has been sugge.sted that the lo- 
calities of anthinus ^wiS. alaudinus might 
have been transposed (Baird, Brewer 
and Ridgway, Hist. N. Am. Bds. I, 1874, 
p. 539, foot-note.); but this idea is re- 
futed by Ridgway (Proc. U. S. N. M. 
VII, 1884, p. 517, foot-note). 
However inapplicable Bonaparte’s 
description may be to the race breeding 
on Kadiak Island, the fact that the type 
ostensibly came from there seems to 
make it desirable to use Bonaparte’s 
name instead of xanthophrys proposed 
by me in the Condor (HI, Jan. 1901, p. 
21). The Kadiak .Savanna Sparrow 
therefore becomes Aminodrainus sand- 
u'ichensis anthinus (Bonaparte). 
Joseph Grinnell. 
