primitive insectivora, rodents, and edentates, all of them showing early stages in the evolution of these orders, now widely differentiated but so difficult to distinguish in the Eocene that their true affinities have been a matter of much controversy.

Revision of Ancestral American Horses

The Memoir by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum and honorary curator of vertebrate palæontology, is a very fully illustrated revision of all the described species of ancestral horses from the later Tertiary formations of this continent. The original type descriptions and illustrations are reprinted with carefully revised drawings and redescriptions of each, and of many more perfect specimens referred to one or another of the described forms. The geological correlation is carefully and exactly revised, so that the succession in time is shown as accurately as is possible in the light of all the later researches. Conclusions as to the exact evolutionary succession and phylogeny are mostly postponed until the author's final monograph on the evolution of the horse, but some probable relationships are indicated here and there, and much that will serve as the fundamental evidence for such conclusions.

This volume will be of great aid to all who are interested in the evolutionary history of the horse, as it brings together a vast mass of data and evidence hitherto scattered through a great number of miscellaneous publications, and corrects many errors or inaccuracies of the older descriptions and illustrations; and more than all because it describes for the first time a large part of the fine collections of Tertiary Equidæ secured by various American Museum expeditions.

Exploration of the Cave Deposits of
Porto Rico

A Memoir by Mr. H. E. Anthony, associate curator in mammalogy in the Amer

1 Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 1918. Equidæ of the Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene of North America. Iconographic Type Revision. Memoirs Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., II, N. S., Part 1, pp. 1-330. Pls. I to LIV and 173 text figures. [Review furnished by Dr. Matthew.]

2 Anthony, H. E. 1918. The Indigenous Land Mammals of Porto Rico, Living and Extinct. Memoirs Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., II, N. S., Part 3, pp. 331-435, Pls. LV-LXXIV and 55 text figures. [Review furnished by Dr. Matthew.]

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ican Museum, is of unusual interest because of its bearing upon the geological history of the West Indies. Whether these islands are the remnants of a former Antillean continent, or have always been islands since they first rose from the sea, whether they were formerly connected with North or with South America, or, as some have thought, with Europe or Africa, are problems which have been much discussed by geologists and zoölogists. Almost nothing had been known of the extinct animals of the West Indies, which might afford valuable evidence on such problems. A few years ago important discoveries of fossil animals were made in Cuba by Dr. Carlos de la Torre, professor of biology, zoölogy, and zoögraphy in the University of Havana, and in Porto Rico by Dr. Franz Boas. Mr. Barnum Brown, cooperating with Dr. de la Torre and other friends of the Museum, has followed up the earlier Cuban discoveries with great success. Mr. Anthony undertook a systematic exploration of the cave deposits of Porto Rico and other West Indian islands with equally satisfactory results. Valuable evidence has also been obtained by explorations for the National Museum and the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

In this Memoir Mr. Anthony describes and illustrates the fossil mammals obtained through his expeditions in Porto Rico. They consist of a remarkable new insectivore, a small ground sloth, a number of rodents large and small, and a few bats. Except for the bats, the fossils are all new and rather distantly related to any continental mammals, the nearest affinities being with South America; but they are quite closely related to the fossil mammals found in Cuba and Hayti. This would seem to show that the larger islands have been united at no very remote date, geologically speaking, and that they have not been united to either continent since the Miocene or Pliocene, if at all. The evidence is wholly against any former union with Europe or Africa. Mr. Anthony is disposed to believe in a union with South or Central America in the Miocene, as against the alternative theory that these mammals are descended from a few stray waifs drifted across by seas and currents on "natural rafts" from the South American rivers.

D

URING the last few years conditions

have arisen in Oregon and northern California which have become increasingly threatening to the existence of the Malheur Lake and Klamath Lake Bird reservations. These are perhaps the most notable migratory-bird reservations in the United States. Malheur Lake is situated in eastern Oregon, a part of the arid Great Basin; the Klamath Lake Reservation is located partly in Oregon and partly in the adjacent part of northern California. Both contain a great area of swampy land with a shallow-water lake in the middle, thus forming ideal homes for enormous numbers of migratory wild fowl, including myriads of ducks, geese, and pelicans, during the nesting season as well as during the spring and fall migrations.

In a region where marshy or swampy areas are as scarce as they are in the northwestern states such areas become of the

highest importance in connection with the conservation of our wild bird life. In their prime these two reservations were perhaps the finest and most populous of any federal bird preserves in the United States. With the growth of settlement in the West land promoters have found opportunity to ply their calling in the districts about both of these reservations and have made continued efforts to secure the abolition of the reservations in order that the lands might be utilized for other purposes.

The marshy lands about the borders of the lakes which form the center of both of these reservations produce an abundant growth of tules, rushes, and other grassy growth which has a certain value as forage for live stock. Owing to the alkaline character of the lands within both of these res

ervations, the United States Biological Survey has for a long time been convinced that they would be of no value for culti

vated crops and that their present production of forage furnished their sole agricultural value.

During the summer of 1919, in order to get definite information as to the facts concerning the value of these lands for agricultural purposes, one of the most experienced and competent of the soil experts of the Department of Agriculture made а reconnaissance of the lands in both Malheur Lake and Klamath Lake reservations. In the report of his reconnaissance the soil expert states definitely that he considers the percentage of alkali in these lands so high that they are valueless for the purpose of growing crops, and that if the water were drained from the lakes the marshes and lake bottoms would become alkali flats.

Malheur Lake is maintained by water which is drained into it by the Blitzen and Silvies rivers. The broad belt of marshy lands surrounding Malheur Lake, covering thousands of acres, produces forage enough to support numerous settlers with their live stock. It is now proposed to divert the water of these streams high up in their courses for purposes of irrigating other lands. If this plan is carried out it means inevitably that Malheur Lake will become dry and the stock ranches which are now scattered around the lake will be rendered

perpetually worthless. Thus a large number of the earliest settlers in that region will be deprived of their homes and property, to a value possibly approaching $1,000,000.

So much for the destruction of the property involved in case the present plans are

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carried out, but further than this will be the great loss to the state in depriving it of one of the most notable wild-fowl resorts in this country, where enormous numbers of ducks and geese and other birds have reared their young from remote times. The loss of this reservation will be irreparable since there is nothing to replace it in that region. Similar consequences will result from the drainage of the Klamath Lake Reservation with the idea of making it into farms.

There is now a bill in Congress for the taking over of the Klamath lands for the purpose of their being opened to settlement, especially for the benefit of soldiers of the late war. In view of the recent survey of these lands by the soil expert and the determination that they are too alkaline for crop cultivation it appears as though any soldiers who are led to locate there with the idea of building up homes will have no reason to thank those who led them into such locations.

In view of the practical worthlessness of the lands in the Malheur Lake and Klamath Lake reservations for cultivation and the exceeding value of these areas for wild fowl, it is to be hoped that they may be continued as bird reservations and the people living about them under present conditions may thus be enabled to retain their homes. If this is done these reservations will serve as important supply points for providing migratory wild fowl for other parts of the country. Such locations are becoming so few that the loss of each one now becomes irreparable. This is especially true of such large and notable areas as Malheur and Klamath lakes.

W

WORK in biological investigations of birds and mammals by the Bureau of Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, and cooperating institutions, while somewhat interrupted by the war, is rapidly getting back to normal.

In Wisconsin the State Geological and Natural History Survey is coöperating with the United States Department of Agriculture in the work, which is in charge of Dr. Hartley H. T. Jackson for the Department

of Agriculture, and Professor George Wagner, of the University of Wisconsin, for the state of Wisconsin. Work was begun May 15 and continued until September 20. The principal field of coöperation was the northwestern part of the state, special attention being devoted to the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. Mr. Harry H. Sheldon for the Biological Survey, and Mr. Arthur J. Poole for the Wisconsin Survey, assisted.

In Montana, Mr. Marcus A. Hanna, assisted by Mr. Harry Malleis, worked the

valley of the Missouri and the bordering plains and mountains from the mouth of Milk River westward, under the general direction of Mr. Edward A. Preble.

The Little Rockies, Moccasin Mountains, Big and Little Belt Mountains and Castle Mountains were visited during the latter part of the summer. Mr. Victor N. Householder was a member of the party during the early part of the season.

The biological survey of Florida was continued by Mr. Arthur H. Howell. Field studies were carried on during March and April over a large part of Lee County and in the region around Lake Okeechobee. The collections in the Florida State Museum were examined and the specimens carefully identified. A collection of bird records from Florida, both published and unpublished, shows approximately 390 species and subspecies recorded from the state.

Coöperating at different times with the Biological Survey in field work in the state of Washington were the following: Prof. William T. Shaw, State College of Washington, Pullman; Prof. H. S. Brode, Whitman College, Walla Walla; Prof. J. W. Hungate, State Normal School, Cheney; Prof. J. B.

Flett, National Park Service, Longmire; Mr. William L. Finley and Mrs. Finley, Portland, Oregon; and Stanton Warburton, Jr., of Tacoma. The Biological Survey was represented for a part of the time by Mr. Stanley G. Jewett, Pendleton, Oregon; and throughout the season by Mr. George G. Cantwell, Puyallup, Washington, and Dr. Walter P. Taylor, of the Biological Survey, the last named in charge of the work. Investigations were made in the Blue Mountains area of extreme southeastern Washington, in which occurs an unusual mixture of Rocky Mountain and Cascade Mountain types; and in Mount Rainier National Park, in connection with which the circuit of Mount Rainier was made for the first time, so far as known, by any vertebrate zoölogical expedition.

In North Dakota Mr. Vernon Bailey worked through September and October to get data on the hibernation of mammals and on the stores of food laid up for winter by nonhibernating species. He has returned with many valuable notes to be added to his report on the mammals of the state, and with an interesting collection of live rodents for study of habits in captivity.

'N northeastern California Burney Falls, tributary to the Pitt River, with the surrounding 160 acres of forest, have been donated to the state by the owners.

Tumalo Cañon, near Bend, Oregon, with alternate rock-walled gorge and forest- and flower-decked bottom land, has been set aside for the people. This is through the generosity of the Shelvin-Hixon Lumber Company, which gives the cañon, and with it a strip of timber along the highway, as a The memorial to the late Thomas Shelvin. company did not own some of the most beautiful parts and bought them at a cost of $20,000 to include them in the gift. This bit of protected highway will be in striking contrast with the road leading into Bend, which for many miles is a desolation of burned and cut-over yellow pine.

From Washington comes news of the organization of a league called the "National Parks Association of Washington," with

Major Everett G. Griggs, of Seattle, chairman. In a small folder the league announces its purpose-which is worthy the attention of the citizens of every state in the Union:

"To preserve the natural features of our state as a part of our inheritance, and to retain in their present beauty our mountains, lakes, trails, and points of scenic interest; to advocate new national parks and the creation of state, county, and municipal parks and highways to connect the same; to preserve our lakes, rivers, and streams from pollution, and conserve our natural supply of food and game fishes; to protect our wild animal life from extermination; to encourage love of nature; and to preserve in the virginal state some part of our great forests."

Washington and Oregon have no great forests of redwoods, but they have mighty forests of other conifers only less majestic. For the sake of the water supply these forests should no longer be cut on the slopes and peaks of the Cascade Mountains and along streams and around the borders of lakes; and for the sake of the beauty of the