80 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ble to distinguish them, then ^ve woukl have tlie material for the solu- 

 tion of a very important question in ornithology. There needs be no 

 one on the spot to be able to distinguish them, but there should be col- 

 lectors billing to furnish the expert with the material. We will, in 

 order to show what we mean, furthermore suppose that collections of 

 large series made during the winter were turned in to the National 

 Museum from several of the Antilles, from the eastern coast of Mexico, 

 and from Yucatan. Suppose the Antillean specimen belong to the 

 foim residing there during summer, and to that only, except the collec- 

 tion made during the migrating season at the western point of Cuba, 

 which, like winter birds from Yucatan, belonged to the form of the 

 Eastern Stares, and finally that the winter birds from Eastern Mexico 

 were identical with those from the Mississippi Valley. 



Anybody can now draw the conclusions, can now understand how 

 extremely important the distinguishing of nearly allied races really is. 

 It has been said that these are "small things," but it must not be for- 

 gotten that in science nothing is small which leads to finding the truth,, and 

 that the great things are only the accumulation and the products of the 

 small ones. To neglect '■'■ small things'''' is to neglect science itself! 



The time when our museums were content with having a few specimens 

 of each species is a past one, and at the present date they require large 

 series. It will therefore be seen that it matters very little if in a cer- 

 tain local form the number of "pure-bred" or "typical" specimens 

 should only amount to, say, 75 per cent., as these will be fully sufficient 

 to recognize the form with certainty. 



So important is the minute distinction of local forms, that the solution 

 of the whole question of bird migration depends upon it. Prof. Johan 

 Axel Palmen, the prominent tracer of the traveling routes of the birds 

 and the great authority on all questions relating to their migration, the 

 author of "Die Zugstrassen der Vdgel," does not call these races geo- 

 graphical or local formSj but "the migrating route forms." 



(2.) The second question was whether it is necessary to have these 

 slightly differentiated forms designated by a separate name, admitting, 

 as \ve now do, the necessity of recognizing them. 



Before giving a direct answer I will make a counterquestion. No- 

 body thinks for a moment of discarding the separate names of undenied 

 species, the characters of which are just as minute as those of a sub- 

 species, provided only they are absolutely constant. What is now the 

 olssect of naming these by a separate appellation, forms which i^erhaps. 

 a^8 of less interest than a great many of the so-called subspecies'? 



The whole thing amounts to this, that if we do not give these forms- 

 a separate name, then we will have to use a long phrase to express which 

 form we mean. The discarding of separating subspecies by separate- 

 names would bring them and their nomenclature just in the same condi- 

 tion as were the specific names before Linuicus. We designate the sub- 

 species and species by a separate name for the same reason. 



