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Publications Reviewed

The Condor

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PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED

“The Transverse Volcanic Biotic Province of Central Mexico and Its Relationships to Adjacent Provinces” by. Robert T. Moore (Trans. San Diego Sot. Nat. Hist., 10, 1945:217-236) deals with fauna1 problems of the southern end of the central plateau of Mexico in the light of evidence provided by birds.,The region is a volcanic belt, the Sierra de Anahuac, which is four hundred miles long and sixty wide. The author has made a provisional survey of the Mexican- avifauna, and the present paper is a more detailed study of the birds of one province and its neighbors. Special attention was given to the Transverse Volcanic Biotic Province because of the abundant material from that region‘in Mr. Moore’s collection. “Approximately 15,000 specimens [were] collected during the past eleven years” by C. C. Lamb, W. W. Brown, and the Mexican collectors, AvilC and Roveglia. An additional ten thousand were taken by Lamb in neighboring provinces. Such a large collection presents endless opportunities, the adequate realization of which will demand the attention of many investigators.

From available evidence, at least eighty species and races are confined to the Transverse Volcanic Province. Some of these are confined to specific subdf&ions, or fauna1 districts. Data are organized effectively in a series of tables. Comparisons are made with five other provinces-Sinaloa, Sierra Madre Occidental, Chihuahua Desert, Sierra Madre Oriental, and Sierra Madre de1 Sur. A map is provided. This paper is offered by the author “merely as a preliminary effort to stimulate future research in the provinces and biotic districts of Mexico” and limits itself almost entirely to a presentation of facts. No reference is made to Dice’s “Biotic Provinces of North America” (see Condor, 4.5, 1943:203).

Growing interest in the biogeography of Mexico well justifies the publication of this prelimiary, but worthwhile paper. Its function seems to me correctly stated by the author. The reader is informed that Major E. A. Goldman and the author have written a paper on “The Biotic Provinces of Mexico,” which is now in pressFRANK A. PITELKA.

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