X PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION. 



frequently been determined that this is wrong or refers merely to 

 the date on which a paper was presented before a society, and 

 not to the date of publication. In such cases the actual date as 

 nearly as it has been possible to determine it has been added in 

 brackets, for example, the reference for Melospiza melodia fallax 

 appears in the third edition, as Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 Phila., VII, 1854, 119, but in the present edition, Baird, Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, No. 3, May-June, 1854 [July 3], 119. 

 This shows that the "Proceedings" appeared in numbers and 

 that No. 3, containing this reference, covered the proceedings for 

 May and June, 1854, but was not published until July 3. The 

 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington and of the 

 New England Zoological Club are not issued in either parts or 

 numbers but each paper appears separately with its date of pub- 

 lication. In the former however the papers are numbered con- 

 secutively so that it is possible to quote this number, with the 

 date following; in the latter no such numbers appear and as there 

 is no way to refer to a paper as a unit the date must follow the 

 page reference. 



The question of priority between two names may depend upon 

 their actual dates of publication and it is important that these be 

 available in such a work as the Check-List. 



In certain cases a new name may be mentioned on several 

 pages of a work, as in the contents, in a key to the species and in a 

 formal description, and for purposes of priority it may be desir- 

 able to quote it from the earhest page possible. In such instances 

 the several pages are all cited; sometimes too the name may be 

 published on one page and the type locality on another so that 

 both are given. Where a plate has been published in connection 

 with a new species it is also quoted even though the name may not 

 appear upon it, and in cases where the name dates from a plate, 

 as in Audubon's folio edition of the "Birds of America," the 

 reference to his "Ornithological Biography" is also given as there 

 only do we find the type locality. 



Original Sources of Names. An innovation in the present 

 edition of the Check-List is the indication of the original basis of 

 names proposed by Linnaeus, Gmelin and a few other early 

 writers, who based their species on the plates or descriptions of 

 still earlier non-binomial authors and were not personally ac- 



