ii PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



bers untouclied in the body of the text, and then adjusts them to the new angle 

 of vision in the Appendix, in parallel columns. Thus the new "Key" turns 

 either way ; or, to vary the metaphor, the renovated structure stands Janus- 

 faced, looking both ways at once — backward upon its old self, of which it 

 has no cause to be ashamed ; forward upon another self, of which it has much 

 reason to be proud. 



The train of incidents which resulted in what may be called a nomenclatural 

 €xi)losion was fired at the founding of tlie American Ornithologists' Union at 

 New York, in September, 1883. As one of three persons who brought that 

 happy episode upon an unsuspecting bird-world, which nevertheless greeted their 

 stroke with acclamation, the author must plead a modesty act in bar of trial of 

 his pen on that particular count. But as the honor was his of presiding over 

 the first Congress of the Union, whilst the ideas of its founders were shapen in- 

 to a permanent and world-wide organization, so also it fell to his lot to appoint 

 several committees for the despatch of business the Union at once took in hand ; 

 and of one of these he has to speak here. 



This particular wheel v/ithin other wheels turned upon a resolution of the 

 Union " that the Chairman appoint a committee of five, including himself, to 

 wdiom shall be referred the question of a revision of the Classification and 

 Nomenclature of the Birds of North America." Having accepted the situation, 

 the author held with his esteemed colleagues many sessions of the Committee in 

 Washington and New York, and in April, 1885, offered to the Union the result 

 of much joint labor. The report of the Committee being accepted, it was ordered 

 to be printed, and it appeared in 1886 in an octavo volume of 400 pages, 

 entitled " The Code of Nomenclature and Check-list of North American Birds, 

 adopted by the American Ornithologists' Union," etc. 



The objects which we kept steadily in view were : first, to establish certain 

 sound principles or canons of nomenclature applicable to zoology at large as 

 well as to ornithology : and, secondly, to apply these rules consistently and 

 effectually to the naming of North American birds. Others must be left to 

 judge how well or ill these purposes may have been accomplished, but the 

 simple fact is that no sooner had the book ajipeared than it became the standard 

 and indeed the only recognized Nomenclator in American Ornithology. That 

 which the Committee had stamped with the seal of the Union became the 

 current coin of the realm, other than which our venerable fowl. The Auk, should 

 know none. 



