156 



Bird - Lore 



the published records of other ornitholo- 

 gists, this volume contains much original 

 matter, which adds greatly to its value as 

 a work of reference, and we heartily con- 

 gratulate its authors on the successful 

 conclusion of a task which has made 

 all working ornithologists their debtors. — 

 F. M. C. 



Check List of North American Birds. 

 Prepared by a Committee of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union. Third 

 (Revised) Edition. New York. Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union. 1910. 8vo. 

 430 pages, 2 maps. 



The fifteen supplements to the A. O. U. 

 Check-List which have been issued since 

 the publication of the second edition, in 

 1895, ha\'e introduced so many changes in 

 the nomenclature of North American 

 birds that bird students everywhere will 

 welcome the appearance of a volume 

 which brings the subject, so far as names 

 are concerned, up-to-date. In classifica- 

 tion, however, there has been no change 

 from that employed in the two preceding 

 editions, the Committee deciding that 

 since no satisfactory classification has as 

 yet been proposed, it is unquestionably 

 better to continue to use one already 

 familiar than to adopt one admittedly 

 tentative, and so long as the classifica- 

 tion of birds remains an expression of in- 

 dividual opinion as to the value and sig- 

 nificance of the factors involved, it is to 

 be hoped that the Committee will continue 

 to view the matter 'from the standpoint 

 of convenience." 



The changes in the nomenclature we 

 have not ventured to enumerate, but we 

 observe that scarcely a page of our anno- 

 tated copy of the second edition of the 

 Check - List is without one or more 

 emendations. These, however, are the 

 unavoidable result of the consistent ap- 

 plication of standard laws of nomenclature, 

 and their very numbers are an indica- 

 tion of our progress toward reasonable 

 stability. 



The few changes which have been 

 made in the English names of our birds 

 are in deference to popular usage, which 

 has not adopted various common names 



proposed in the first edition of the Check- 

 List, or for other desirable reasons. The 

 whole list of new names will be found in 

 Bird-Lore for October, 1909. The num- 

 ber of species included is 790 plus 385 sub- 

 species, a total of 1,175 as compared with 

 the 797 species, 300 subspecies, and total 

 of 1,097 forms in the second edition. The 

 loss in species is due, in the main, to the 

 exclusion of Giraud's alleged Texas rec- 

 ords of Mexican birds, while larger col- . 

 lections and finer discriminations account 

 for the gain in subspecies. 



The modern, logical method for the 

 use of trinomials is adopted, and when a 

 species is divisible into two or more 

 forms, the binonlal name is applied to the 

 group as a whole, and trinomials are 

 used for all the included forms. 



It is, however, in the paragraphs de- 

 voted to 'Range' that the new Check-List 

 shows the most marked impro\-ement 

 over the preceding editions; and for the 

 vast fund of information they contain, we 

 have to thank the Biological Survey, 

 which in possessing an incomparable 

 series of data on the distribution of North 

 .\merican birds, is in a position to make 

 this portion of the work adequately 

 present existing knowledge. While our 

 thanks are due each member of the Com- 

 mittee for his part in preparing this in- 

 dispensable volume, we speak advisedly 

 when we say that every user of it is under 

 an especial obligation to its Editor, Dr. 

 J. A. Allen, who in revising manuscripts 

 and in seeing this volume through the 

 press has for the better part of two years 

 devoted no small portion of his time to 

 what in truth has been a labor of love. — - 

 F. M. C. 



Private Game Preserves and Their 

 Future in the United States. By T. 

 S. Palmer. Bureau of Biological Survey. 

 Circular No. 72, May, 1910. 10 pages, 

 6 half-tones. 



While game preserves are established 

 in order that game may be killed upon 

 them, they become, at the same time, 

 refuges for many species of birds which, 

 being fortunate enough not to be killed 



