19S Tin- Wilson Rullf.tix, No. 72-73. 



detract from the value of the vohime, which coiiaius a vast amount 

 of goofl infonnntiou and slionkl be in the hands of every bird 

 student in tlio land. w. f. h. 



Check List of North American Birds. Third Edition Revised 

 August, IDIO. 



After preparation of four years tlie •'new" Clieclv List at last 

 has made its appearance. We are both deli.ylited witli it and dis- 

 appointed. Delighted with the nine changes in the construction of 

 the new edition as enumerated on pages 11 and 12, disappointed 

 because some other changes, timely and needed, indeed, have not 

 been t( rthcoming. It may perhaps seem supfrtiuous to give another 

 review of this work, since an extended review of it has already ap- 

 peared in the Auk. Unfortunately, however, the reviewer in the 

 Auk is himself a member (in fact the chairman of the com- 

 mittee) which bad the preitaration o fthe Check List in liands, 

 hence, although we have tlie greatest personal respect and admira- 

 tion for him, cannot though Rie may strenuously strive to be ab- 

 solutely impartial in his review. On the other hand we well know 

 that the Reviews signed J. A. A. stand exactly for the views of 

 J. A. A., and do not necessarily have back of them the authority 

 of the entire A. O. V. Likswlse the initials here appended indi- 

 cate only the writer as responsible for the stand taken. 



The List as a whole is a great improvement over the former edi- 

 tions, as in giving determination of type species, stating type lo- 

 calities and similar other matters. A purely typographical error 

 is found on ]';"re !'<!:'. the (ienitive of (iambel must be gambeli 

 and not gambel. An inconsistency is the accentuation of Calldris 

 in Calidris leucophrea and Calidris in Vireosylva calidris, it should 

 be calldris in both cases. The name of the Vesper Sparrow must be 

 Pocecetes and "not" Pooecetes, for Poa and oiketes can never be 

 contr;ict"d into a word having the accent on the last s.vllable. 

 To any scholar the perpetuation of such cacographical errors as 

 Leptotila and Ilarelda and others is .a source of grief, for no mat- 

 ter what the rules are governing our List in bird names in such 

 cases, it is no more than proper that such glaring mistakes should 

 be wiped out forever; or if the rules of nomenclatur(» forliid the 

 correct spelling of names, then change these rules. 



We had fervently hoped to see a modern system of classification 

 used ill the Check List, for to place the Striges with the Falcones 

 and Sarcorhamphi or better between the Falcones and Coccyges, 

 where they certainly do not belong, and similar instances are 

 numerous enough, and then to excuse the retaining of the old sys- 

 tem by saying "that nil i)resent systems of classification in orni- 



