IV PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION. 



changes proposed by various authors intended for the use of the 

 Committee and others interested in nomenclature. 



At the Pittsburgh meeting of the Union, in November, 1924, 

 the preparation of a fourth edition of the Check- List was author- 

 ized to be undertaken at once and Witmer Stone was appointed 

 chairman to carry out the work with power to appoint a Com- 

 mittee and subdivide the duties. He chose: Jonathan Dwight, 

 Joseph Grinnell, Waldron deWitt Miller, Harry C. Oberholser, T. 

 S. Palmer, Charles W. Richmond, and Alexander Wetmore as his 

 associates. Two Subcommittees were also appointed, one, con- 

 sisting of Dr. Wetmore and Mr. Miller, being authorized to draw 

 up a new scheme of classification down to and including genera 

 and subgenera for use in the new edition. This classification down 

 to families and subfamilies, was published in ' The Auk ' for July 

 1926, pp. 337-346. The other Subcommittee including Drs. 

 Richmond, Oberholser, and Palmer considered such purely nom- 

 enclatural questions as had not been decided by previous Com- 

 mittees and presented their findings to the chairman. 



Before its work was completed the Committee suffered severely 

 by the deaths of Dr. Dwight and Mr. Miller, though fortunately 

 not before Mr. Miller had finished his work on the classification 

 and Dr. Dwight had given his advice and views on the general 

 problems confronting the Committee. To fill the vacancies thus 

 created James L. Peters and John T. Zimmer were appointed, 

 both of whom had already rendered valuable service to the 

 Committee in various ways, although their official connection 

 with the Check-List covers little more than its final preparation 

 for the press. Mr. Zimmer's wide knowledge of proof-reading 

 and punctuation has been of the greatest assistance, while Mr. 

 Peters's data collected in conjunction with his forthcoming more 

 comprehensive 'Check-List of the Birds of the World' has been 

 generously placed at the service of the Committee. 



At the outset it was agreed that all nomenclatural decisions of 

 the Committee that functioned after the appearance of the third 

 edition be adopted unless brought before the present Committee 

 for reconsideration; and that all decisions on ornithological cases 

 relating to species and subspecies published in the Sixteenth, 

 Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Supplements be also adopted with 

 the same proviso. 



