PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 73 



the races of Bubo virginianvs as follows (Illustr. B. Calif., Tex., etc., p. 

 178) : Bubo virginianus 



Variety, atlanticus^ [new narnej. 



Variety, paciftcus, [new name]. 



Variety, arcticus, [B. Arcticus Swains.]. 



Variety, magellanicus, [8. magellanicus Gmel.]. 

 Althougli the trinoniinals are rather few in "The Birds of North 

 AiDerica," (1858), still that work and that date are of great interest, be- 

 cause they show that Professor Baird, in using them and inventing new 

 ones, favored the principle, which, afterwards, on his great authority, 

 was so generally accepted by North American Ornithologists. In fact, 

 the trinominals of present American ornithology can with great propri- 

 ety be said to date from 1858, when that gi'eat work was published, which 

 still exercises its influence through the "History of North American 

 Birds," an influence strong enough to retain for the present epoch of 

 American ornithology the name of " the Bairdian Period," and which 

 has formed the "American school," if such a term is admissible. 



Of trinonnnals dating from 1858 may be mentioned:* 

 Tiirdus palhisi var. silens. 

 Pieus villosKS var. major. 



\i\v. medivs. * 



var. minor. 

 Bonasa umbellus var. umbeUoides. 



The principle thus accepted was not discarded in the same author's, 

 unfortunately unfinished, "Eeview of American Birds" (1864-1866), 

 from which we select the following list : 

 Thryothorus beunclii, var. bewickii. 

 Thryothoriis beicickii, var. Jeucogaater. 

 Thryothorus beivicMi, var. spilurus. 

 Thryophilus rufalbus, var. rufalbus. 

 Thryophilus rufalbus var. poliopleura. 

 Troglodytes (cdon, var. aztecus. 

 Troglodytes hyemaliSj var. pacificus. 

 Cistothorus 2)alustris^ var. paludicola. 

 Atticora cyanoleucu ^ \ar. montana. 



It was not long before the example thus set was followed. In Janu- 

 ary, 1865, Henry Bryant, in describing Parus Jmdsonicus, var. Uttoralis, 

 expressed himself thus : " I am inclined myself to consider P. atricapil- 

 lus, s€2)t€)itrionalis, meridionalis, and oecidentaUs, as varieties of one 

 species " (Pr. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1865, p. 368), and in the beginning of 

 the following year, he said, "The West India Islands possess peculiar 

 forms generally recognized by ornithologists as species, but which it. 

 seems to me more rational, in many instances, to consider as local forms 



*We should not forget that Prince Max von Wied also is found guilty of using 

 trinominals in that very year, for instance, Rirundo riparia americana, (Jouru. f. Oru., 



1858, p. 101). 



