uEViKws. 372 



evidence of the utility of this could be desired than is afforded by 

 the advance of our knowledge of American birds within the last 

 ten or fifteen years ; for it is undeniable that the searching scru- 

 tiny to which they have been subjected has been facilitated by the 

 custom of Prof. Baird and others of naming all recognizable 

 "forms," without the least reference, even by implication, to the 

 abstract question of species. Mr. Allen himself admits that these 

 geographical binomials " have furnished stepping-stones to later 

 generalizations ; " a very proper admission, for the road he has 

 just travelled with signal success was first opened, and afterward 

 smoothed by them. The present is no time to discard such useful 

 adjuncts : let the scatlblding stand till the building is finished. 



We hold that the whole matter at issue between Mr. Allen and 

 most of the rest of us is a war of words — a mere difference of 

 opinion as to what a binomial may properly be used to express.- 



To illustrate : Assume that Sturyiella magna, neglecta, Mexicana, 

 lupj)ocrepis and meridionalis are climatic differentiations, and that 

 very likel}- the}' all came from one pair of birds. Mr. Allen would 

 of course be the first to disclaim any more information than Dr. 

 Sclater, for instance, possesses. Both these gentlemen know ex- 

 actly how the case stands ; but one of them' chooses to predicate 

 Sturnella magna upon a di^agnosis Avide enough to include without 

 specifying the five forms ; while the other chooses to sort out the 

 five lots and label each of them with a different name. We repeat 

 Mr. Allen's own words ; it does "depend entirely upon individual 

 predilection whether two, three or four ' species ' or ' binomial 

 forms'" shall be recognized; and to argue the point, under color 

 of discussing the origin and nature of species, is to saw the air. 

 A species, as far as naming it is concerned, is quite as much an 

 opinion as a genus or a family is ; for it is certain that genera and 

 that families shade into each other. If the test that Mr. Allen 

 proposes for species be applied to higher groups, our nomenclature 

 falls to the ground ; and if it be not thus applicable, it is equally 

 inapplicable to species. By what rule would Mr. Allen separate 

 Trupialis militaris from Sturnella magna ? In spite of the fact that 

 these are not known, at present, to intergrade, there is no assur- 



the sign '• var.," tliat shall stamp the form we wish to signalize. Perhaps this would 

 be a judicious middle course, most applicable to the present state of the science. But 

 if use of a regular binomial for geograpliical races be an evil, lumping them all under 

 one name, as pure synonyms, with no hint of the different shades of meaning they rep- 

 resent, is assuredly a greater evil, and one that seriously militates against the prog- 

 ress of ornithology, if, indeed, it does not tend to throw the science back. 



