Editorial 



103 



A Bi-monthly Maeazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Contributing Editor. MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XIII Published Apiil 1.1911 No. 2 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in th: Unileil States. Canada and Mexico twenty cents 

 a number, one dullar a year, postage paid. 



COPYRIGHTED. 1911, BY PRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto : 

 A Bird in the Bush Is IVorth Two in the Hand 



When this number of Bird-Lore ap- 

 pears, the Editor hopes to be encamped 

 with Louis Fuertes in the Andes of South- 

 ern Colombia. A wireless telegraph will 

 not be included in our equipment, and 

 communication by mail will be too infre- 

 quent and uncertain to warrant forward- 

 ing letters. The indulgence of corres- 

 pondents is therefore begged until such 

 time as we return to more beaten paths. 



It may not be out of place to explain 

 that this absence will be occasioned by 

 the second of the American Museum's 

 expeditions in search of specimens and 

 data on which to base Habitat Groups of 

 Tropical American Birds. Studies for the 

 first group of this series were made in the 

 State of Vera Cruz, Mexico, in the spring 

 of 1910. The second group is designed to 

 show a general view of an Andean range 

 from a tropical or temperate level, and 

 the Cauca Valley of Colombia has been 

 selected as a region where representative 

 material for a group of this nature could 

 be found. 



We would urge all contributors to 

 Bird-Lore to use consistently the com- 

 mon names of birds contained in the third 

 edition of the American Ornithologists 

 Union's ' Check-List of North American 

 Birds.' It is now published in a small 

 pocket edition with blank pages for notes, 

 which may be obtained from Dr. J. 

 Dwight, Jr., Treasurer of the A. O. U., at 



134 W. 71st Street New York City, for 

 twenty-five cents. 



Unfortunately, in an effort to simplify 

 the common names of our birds, the 

 authors of this work have gone a step too 

 far. They decided, and doubtless rightly, 

 that it was unnecessary to continue to 

 use the prefix 'American' for those birds 

 which, either in fact or fancy, are the 

 New World representatives of Old 

 World forms. 



For example, it is no more necessary 

 for us to say American Osprey or Ameri- 

 can Crossbill than it would be for an 

 Englishman to say English Osprey or 

 English Crossbill. In the first instance, it 

 is true, from a local standpoint, Osprey 

 is quite sufficient, there being but a single 

 species of Osprey in each country. But 

 where several species of the same country 

 bear the same common group name, its 

 application to each must be in connection 

 with some qualifying name, if it is to have 

 exact, specific meaning. For a bird 

 student in America to say he has seen a 

 Crossbill, therefore, is not enough, since 

 it would not be clear from this statement 

 whether he referred to what in earlier 

 editions of the Check-List was called the 

 American Crossbill or the White-winged 

 Crossbill. Here it might be well to 

 return to the old name of Red Crossbill. 



In a similar manner, while it is obviously 

 unnecessary for us to use the name 

 American when speaking of our Eared 

 Grebe, White Pelican, Avocet, Wood- 

 cock, Barn Owl, Long-eared Owl or 

 Dipper, to cite several examples, we can- 

 not use the names Merganser, Scaup, 

 Golden-eye, Eider, Scoter, Egret or 

 Bittern, for example, and make our 

 meaning unmistakable without employing 

 some qualifying term. 



Such terms, also, it seems to us, should 

 be used as well for (7// the forms of an 

 American species. That is, if we call 

 Planesticus migratorius propinqiius West- 

 ern Robin, we should call Planesticus 

 migratorius migratorius Eastern Robin, 

 leaving the mere name Robin, in exact 

 writing at any rate, to be the group name 

 of the species Planesticus migratorius. 



