Editorial 



301 



ilirti Sore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OK THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Contributing Editor, MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XIV Published October 1. 1912 No. 5 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



COPTRIGMTBD, (912. BY PRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in the Hand 



The thirtieth annual congress of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union will be 

 held at the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 

 November 12-14, 191 2. No one who has 

 ever attended an A. O. U. Congress there- 

 after misses one if he can help it! Con- 

 sequently no one who is eligible for election 

 to membership in the A. O. U. should 

 neglect the opportunity to associate himself 

 with others of kindred tastes. If he cannot 

 attend the annual congresses of the 

 Union he can at least read of them, and of 

 many other things orjiithological, in the 

 pages of 'The Auk.' All information will 

 be supplied by Dr. J. Dwight, Jr., Treas., 

 134 West 71st St., New York City. 



Mr. Joseph Grinnell, of the Museum 

 of Vertebrate Zoology of the University 

 of California, has recently published as 

 Pacific Coast Avifauna No. 8, of the 

 Cooper Ornithological Club, an authorita- 

 tive check-list of California birds which 

 prompts us to make certain remarks on 

 check-lists and local lists in general. 



Such lists are designed primarily to tell 

 us how many and what kinds of birds are 

 found in the region they cover, and the 

 information thus conveyed may be used 

 in a great variety of ways, but, as with a 

 dictionary, the prime requisite of a check- 

 list is ease of reference. 



It is therefore a matter of regret when 

 the compiler of a list of this nature pre- 

 sents it in such a form that its reference 



value is largely destroyed. This, in our 

 opinion, Mr. Grinnell has done by failing 

 to adopt in the publication mentioned 

 above, a classification which for nearly 

 thirty years has been the standard in 

 North America and which is familiar to 

 all students of North .'\merican birds, — 

 that is, the classification of the 'Check- 

 List' of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union. That this classification is anti- 

 quated and does not represent currently 

 accepted views regarding the relation- 

 ships of our birds is beyond question, but 

 we maintain that a check-list, and particu- 

 larly a list containing only a fraction of 

 the birds of the world, is not the place in 

 which to adopt a classification differing 

 radically from the one in common use 

 and recognized as a standard in the 

 country where the list is produced. 



The American Ornithologists' Union 

 very wisely took this ground in dealing 

 with the birds of a very much wider area 

 than Mr. Grinnell's list covers, and con- 

 sidering ease of reference of more impor- 

 tance than the adoption of an admittedly 

 tentative (even if the latest) scheme of 

 classification, employed in the 1910 

 edition of its 'Check-List of North 

 American Birds' the classification used 

 in preceding editions. The object for 

 which the book was issued was thereby 

 served and its reference value maintained. 



The whole subject of classification is a 

 most difficult and, in many respects, 

 unsatisfactory one. The entire existing 

 avifauna of the earth represents probably 

 but the fragmentary remains of avian 

 forms which have existed in preceding 

 geological ages, and the attempt to 

 arrange the some 13,000 species of living 

 birds in accordance with what is believed 

 to be their natural relationships will oc- 

 cupy the systematists for many generations 

 and doubtless never be wholly successful. 



In the meantime if the authors of 

 check-lists and local lists will but follow 

 the standard prevailing in the region to 

 which they relate they will win the grati- 

 tude of everyone who has occasion to 

 refer to the published results of their 

 labors. 



