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Mar., i9o 4 I THE- CONDOR 49 Mr. E. W. Nelson, our authority on Mexican birds, may be said to have ac- complished the greater part of his ornithological work at the two extremes of the continent--namely, in northertl Alaska and in Mexico. Although as early as x875 he published Notes on Birds observed in Portions of Utab, Nevada, and California, and later several articles on the birds of Illinois, his first extensive paper was the Birds of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, contained in the Cruise of the Corwin 0880, which was followed in x887 by the Report upon Natural History Collections Made in Alaska. Since then he has published largely on the ornithology of our southwestern frontier and of Mexico. Mr. Nelson was a member of the Death Valley Expedition, and,assisted by Mr. E. A. Goldman, has penetrated every corner of Mexico in the interests of the Biological Survey. The results of these explora- tions have been the gathering of u n paralleled collections, the discovery of many nov- elties a, and what is perhaps most important, an accurate knowledge of the physio- graphy and life zones of the vast and remarkable region. Mr. Nelson has also made substantial contributions to the literature of mammalogyb and Alaskan ethnology? a Mr. Nelson has described over xSO species and subspecies of birds and mammals, the greater part from Mexico. b The ?quirrels of Mexico and Central America, i899, is the most extensive. c The l?skimo about Bering ?traits, 1899.