522 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVL 



kind of egg is laid, how and why it is pigmented in a thousand 

 diflferent ways, together with the attendant anatomical and biologi- 

 cal circumstances. 



Practically all scientific Zoological research resolves itself into an 

 endless inquiry into the ways of evolution. Each successful 

 Natviralist adding during his life something to the accumulated 

 mass of accepted facts upon which others shall build up either 

 additional facts, or shall make some discovery which shall further 

 enlighten humanity upon the ways and means of the great mystery 

 of creation and perpetuation of life by evolution. 



To me it seems that M^hen we find out a few facts entitling 

 geographical races to trinomials, we are adding a few bricks to 

 the foundation of the building whose coping stone shall be complete 

 knowledge. 



To those of us who are Field Naturalists in India, correct 

 nomenclature does not, of course, appeal with any great force ; 

 but on the other hand, the existence and definition of sub-species 

 is a factor of the greatest interest. A Government officer in the 

 course of his duty may have to visit the snow-clad mountains of 

 the Himalayas, the dense, humid forests of Assam and Burma, the 

 arid plains of Sind and Rajputana, or the never varying heat 

 of South India, Ceylon or Tennasserim. Over all these greatly 

 contrasting areas, he may meet with the same species of bird, 

 perhaps all varieties included in the standard works under one 

 name, or perhaps divided into half-a-dozen so-called species. 



When quite a young man, intensely interested in ornithology, 

 and living in a part of India teeming with bird-life, I was con- 

 stantly confronted with difficulties in ascertaining the name of 

 some particular bird. Sometimes it seemed to me that the des- 

 criptions of two or three birds would equally well apply to the 

 specimen in hand, whilst at other times no description seemed 

 correct in every particular, and it was quite impossible to say to 

 which of two or more descriptions my bird should be allotted. 

 Gradually it dawned on me that in many cases geographical varia- 

 tions of the same species had been all lumped under one specific 

 name, and in others these had been split up into several species 

 under different binomials. At this time several leading scientists 

 were beginning to work out a system of sub-species with trinomials, 

 and when I had read some of their articles, my difficulties began to 

 disappear. Having grasped the idea of their system, there opened 

 before me the w^onderful scheme of creation by evolution, the 

 constant standardization (if I may use such a term) of variations 

 in structure and colour which help to maintain existence with the 

 corresponding elimination by destruction of all unnecessary or 

 injurious characteristics. 



