SIBLEY: ORNITHOLOGY 645 



ancestor while Nopcsa (1907) derived flying birds from rapid-running ground- 

 dwelling forms. Beebe (1915) proposed the "tetrapteryx" stage as an ancestral 

 intermediate form. This hypothetical progenitor had a ''pelvic wing" which 

 Beebe believed to be indicated by the femoral tract of modern birds. Steiner 

 (1917) proposed a proavian which is both tree-dwelling and running, with long 

 hind limbs and forelimbs equipped with functional claws and an expanded 

 air-foil of feathers. 



Two recent papers by Hildegarde Howard (1947, 1950) present evidence of 

 avian evolutionary history based on the fossil record while AVetmore (1950) 

 has reviewed the addition to the knowledge of fossil birds since the publication 

 of Lambrecht's book in 1933. 



Ornithological Periodicals 



It is doubtful if any other class of animals has been the inspiration for the 

 founding of as many serial publications as birds. Most of these journals have 

 enjoyed but a brief life and few have become scientifically important. A small 

 number have been privately printed; most have been or are the organs of so- 

 cieties or institutions. 



Within the pages of the Journal filr Ornithologie, the Ihis, and the Auk have 

 appeared more than half the basically important ornithological papers of the 

 past century. These three have enjoyed the benefits of an active membership 

 in the supporting societies and that all-important necessity, good editorship over 

 long periods of time. 



It was partly as a protest against the provincialism of other ornithological 

 periodicals that Gustav Hartlaub (b. 1814, d. 1900) and Jean Cabanis (b. 1816, 

 d. 1906) founded the Journal filr OrnitJioJogie in 1852. With Cabanis as editor 

 and leading German ornithologists as contributors the "J. f. 0." soon became the 

 principal German ornithological periodical. The present editor is Erwin Strese- 

 mann. 



In 1858 the Ihis was founded in England as the organ of the British Orni- 

 thologists' Union. It too enjoyed a series of competent editors and quickly be- 

 came the premier ornithological periodical in English. Among its editors have 

 been Alfred Newton, Osbert Salvin, Philip Lutley Sclater, and his son, William 

 Lutley Sclater. The present editor is R. E. Moreau. 



The Nuttall Ornithological Club was organized in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 

 in 1876 and began publication of The Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological 

 Club in the same year. Seven years later, when the American Ornithologists' 

 Union was organized in New York (September 26, 1883), the Nuttall Club of- 

 fered its Bulletin and its editor as the foundation for the journal of the union. 

 The Auk was chosen as the name of the new journal and J. A. Allen continued 

 as editor until 1912, when he was succeeded by AVitmer Stone. Glover Morrill 

 Allen followed Stone in 1937. Following in succession as editor were John T. 

 Zimmer, Harvey I. Fisher and Robert AV. Storer (incumbent). 



The official date of the founding of the Wilson Ornithological Club is Decem- 

 ber 3, 1888, although its roots go back to 1858 under various names. In 1889 a 

 journal was started, the Ornithologists and Oologists' Semi-Annual. Within the 

 next nine years the name was changed no less than six times, the seventh (1898), 



