88 JOTTINGS ABOUT BIRDS. 



It is a matter for surprise that so many eminent 

 ornithologists either decline to recognize the exist- 

 ence or fail to grasp the importance of these 

 various races. Evolutionists should persist in 

 their demand for the full and unqualified recogni- 

 tion of these sub-specific forms, for they illustrate 

 most vividly the segregating forces that are slowly 

 and surely working through the era of present 

 time. Evolution implies the existence of im- 

 perfectly segregated forms, or forms and races still 

 undergoing a disintegrating process. Ornitho- 

 logists cannot ignore them. It behoves, therefore, 

 every student of ornithology to recognize these 

 various races, sub-species, local forms, or by 

 whatever else we may designate them, to the 

 best of his ability and judgment, by a uniform 

 system of trinomial nomenclature. Rather let 

 our literature be burdened with endless trinomials, 

 than suffer the great teachings of nature to be 

 ignored. 



We now come to consider another class of 

 representatives, namely, species which are obviously 

 very closely allied, yet perfectly distinct, and in- 

 habiting separate areas. Some of the most inter- 

 esting instances are those of species inhabiting the 

 Palaearctic and Nearctic regions respectively. How 



