480 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



from time to time and later incorpor- 

 ated in new editions of the check list of 

 which the second was puhlished in 1895 

 and the third in 1910. 



Three other committees, also ap- 

 pointed at the first meeting, those 

 on migration, geographic distribution 

 of birds, and on the status of the Eng- 

 lish sparrow, began the collection of 

 data on such a comprehensive scale that 

 the work soon outgrew the resources of 

 the Union to handle it. In 1885 Con- 

 gress was indviced to provide a special 

 appropriation for carrying it on in con- 

 nection with the investigations of the 

 United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and thus was founded the Divi- 

 sion of Ornithology which later de- 

 veloped into the present Bureau of 

 Biological Survey. The first bulletin 

 issued by the Division was a Report on 

 Bird Migration in the Mississippi Val- 

 ley, the forerunner of many other pub- 

 lications on migration and geographic 

 distribution ; and the second was a 

 comprehensive bulletin on The English 

 Sparrow in America, the initial number 

 of a long series of reports on the food 

 and the economic relations of birds. 



Some Pubj^icatioxs of the A. 0. U. 



As a publisher the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union occupies a field pecu- 

 liarly its own and concentrates its ener- 

 gies on the two main objects of keeping 

 its members informed concerning (1) 

 current literature on birds and all that 

 relates to their food, migration, and life 

 histories; and (2) the latest facts con- 

 cerning the nomenclature and distribu- 

 tion of the species found in ISTorth 

 America. To attain these objects it 

 issues a quarterly journal and occa- 

 sional check lists. It has never under- 

 taken the publication of memoirs, 

 monographs, or similar extended papers 

 usually issued by academies of science 

 and other scientific institutions, or 

 manuals, handbooks, or works contain- 

 ing popular descriptions of birds which 

 are brought out frequently 1)y private 



publishers. Its journal, known as IVie 

 Auk, in accordance with the custom of 

 naming ornithological journals after 

 some characteristic bird, serves as a 

 medium of publication for papers or 

 short notes on any phase of ornithology. 

 A bound set of this journal, now in its 

 thirty-fifth volume, fills a five-foot shelf 

 and contains an epitome of the princi- 

 pal ornithological work in America 

 since 1883. The Auh is practically a 

 continuation or second series of the 

 Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological 

 Chib which was published from 1876 to 

 1883. It is especially rich in short 

 notes, faunal papers or local lists of 

 birds of special regions, and reviews of 

 publications on birds which have ap- 

 peared elsewhere. A general index has 

 been published containing references to 

 all the articles in the Bulletin and in 

 The Aul: from 1883 to 1900, while a 

 decennial index covers the volumes 

 from 1901 to 1910. Thus by means of 

 these two indexes and the annual in- 

 dexes the great mass of records and 

 notes contained in about eighteen thou- 

 sand printed pages are rendered acces- 

 sible to the general reader. 



The other publication, an authorita- 

 tive list of the genera, species, and sub- 

 species of birds found in Xorth Amer- 

 ica north of Mexico, with a statement 

 of the geographic distribution of each 

 form, is known as the A. 0. U. Check- 

 List. An abridged check list, contain- 

 ing only the names, was published in 

 1889, and a pocket edition for field use 

 in 1911. These publications, technical 

 as they may seem at first sight, contain 

 much of interest and are highly valu- 

 able as works of reference. Even the 

 CJteck-List contains many facts which 

 only require elal^oration to make them 

 interesting. Any one who will glance 

 over the charming chapter on "Reading 

 a Check-List"' in Bradford Torrey's 

 Field-Days in California will be in- 

 clined to agree with the author that 

 "for the right man there's a world of 

 ffood reading- in a check-list." 



