ACADEMY OF SCONCES] BIOGRAPHY 



No. 1] 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE 



Doctor Allen's first publication of major importance appeared in 1871, when he was 32 years 

 of age. It was issued, unfortunately, under the superheading " On the Mammals and Winter 

 Birds of East Florida" (an excellent faunal paper based chiefly on a winter's work in that State), 

 but that portion of the paper which at once brought Doctor Allen to the attention of philosophic 

 naturalists is contained under the subheading "With an examination of certain assumed specific 

 characters in birds and a sketch of the bird-faunae of eastern North America." 



The subject of individual and geographic or climatic variation in the size and colors of birds 

 was here given more serious consideration, based on detailed studies, than it had previously 

 received. 



Trinomials had not then been adopted as tools of the taxonomist, and Doctor Allen, con- 

 servative by nature, protested against the recognition as species of intergrading forms, a proce- 

 dure which is now unquestioned. He argued that " whenever two forms which have both received 

 names are found to intergrade, the more recent name shall become a synonym of the. other. 

 Some, however, still urge that every recognizable form, closely allied to others, and even inter- 

 grading, should be recognized by a binominal epithet, and that whether we call them species, or 

 varieties, or races, or simply forms, that such names are none the less convenient expressions of 

 facts." 



Doctor Allen did not indorse this view, and although subspecific "splitting" was then in its 

 infancy, he added with a prophetic foresight which indicated the thought he had given to the 

 subject: "... Only experts can distinguish the forms, and frequently they only by actual 

 comparison of specimens. . . . The names alone give us no clue to their real character, and are 

 hence in a great measure meaningless when separated from the most explicit diagnoses, and 

 whose affinities can frequently only be settled by the arbitrary criterion of locality." 



It is a tribute to Doctor Allen's open-mindedness to follow his gradually changing point of 

 view as with increasing experience, gained through the study of constantly growing collections 

 and a characteristically unprejudiced estimate of the labors of his colleagues, he finally became 

 convinced of the importance of recognizing the slightest constant geographic variation by name. 



In 1883 and 1884 he published several articles or reviews advocating the use of trinomials as 

 a convenient means of recognizing geographic forms in our systems of nomenclature. "Instead 

 of doing violence to the ' Stricklandian Code,' " he wrote, "the trinomial system is a device, as 

 we have stated on other occasions, to meet simply and completely a condition of things unknown 

 and unexpected when that, in most respects, admirable system of nomenclatural rides was 

 conceived, and is in accordance with the spirit if not the letter of that ' Code.' It is in no sense 

 a lapse toward polynomialism." (Auk I, 1884, p. 103.) 



Six years later, under the title "To what extent is it profitable to recognize geographical 

 forms among North American birds?" he wrote: " Conscious of my own changed tendencies, it 

 has seemed to me well to raise the above question for brief consideration, since it can do no harm 

 to survey the field calmly and take note of the present drift in respect to a very important 

 subject. 



"Recent investigations have taken me over fields I worked, with some care, ten to fifteen 

 years ago. In the meantime material has greatly increased; series of specimens have been 

 obtained from localities then unknown ; thus I find myself looking at things in a new light, but 

 from, I trust, a more advanced position. My former tendencies, in common with those of 

 others at that time, were in the direction of reducing doubtful forms to synonyms and closely 

 related species to geographical forms. Now, with much additional experience, some increase of 

 knowledge in respect to particular points at issue, and much more abundant material, some of 

 my former conclusions seem open to revision, as I now realize that the resources then at command 

 were far less adequate for the settlement of questions at issue than I then supposed them to be." 



He stdl, however, urged caution in the use of trinomials "in order to guard against drawing 

 too fine distinctions"; and added, "very little is to be gained by naming races distinguishable 

 only by experts . . ." (1. c, p. 7). But a dozen years later we find him wholly committed to 

 the recognition by name of geographic variations which are appreciable only to the experienced 



