Recently published Ornithological IVorks. 233 



81. Smithsonian Report for 1882. 



[Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 showing the operations, expenditure, and condition of the Institution 

 for the Year 1882. 8vo. Washington: 1884.] 



The most interesting portion of this Report to ornitho- 

 logists is Mr. Ridgway^s account of the bird-collection in the 

 National Museum^ which, by special Act of Congress, has 

 been placed under the charge of the Smithsonian Institution 

 (pp. 132-135). The total number of specimens in the col- 

 lection when the Report was prepared was 44,354. Forty- 

 four papers based upon materials provided by the collection 

 were published in 1882. 



82. Stejnerjer on Trinomials in Ornithologij. 



[On the Use of Trinomials in American Ornithology. By Leonard 

 Stejneger. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1884, p. 70.] 



Mr. Stejneger gives us an excellent essay on trinomials, 

 which he regards "as a nuisance, but a very necessary 

 nuisance." He shows that, although now more generally 

 employed in America than elsewhere, trinomials are by no 

 means an American invention. Sundevall was the father of 

 modern trinomialism, and Schlegel, in 1844, introduced 

 twenty-seven subspecies into his list of European birds, 

 adding the subspecific name without any connecting word 

 or letter. J. H. Blasius, Bonaparte, Middendorff, and others 

 also employed trinomials freely. 



It has been said that the great objection to the system is 

 the opportunity it gives to the ignorant of naming as sub- 

 species forms too slightly diflPerentiated to require any such 

 formal recognition. Mr. Stejneger is of opinion, in which 

 we agree with him, that a more injurious use of trinomials 

 is liable to be made in reducing good and distinct species to 

 mere races or varieties. But he shows clearly that the recog- 

 nition of the minor differences on which subspecies are based 

 is of vital importance to the study of birds. He is also of 

 opinion that these subspecies ought to have separate names, 

 and that the best way of effecting this is the trinomial 

 designation. 



SER. V. VOL. III. R 



