NOMENCLATURE OF AMERICAN BIRDS. 1 33 



THE NOMENCLATURE OF AMERICAN 

 BIRDS.i 



FEW scientific books of recent years have been 

 awaited with so much interest as the *' Check- 

 List " of birds and its accompanying ''Code," pub- 

 Hshed by the American Ornithologists' Union. To 

 those interested in systematic ornithology the work 

 is, of course, of the highest importance, as giving 

 an authoritative settlement, so far as authority can 

 settle anything in science, of the much-vexed ques- 

 tions in bird nomenclature. But to the systematic 

 workers in other departments of zoology, and 

 even to botanists, its interest is scarcely less great. 

 For we who work in other fields are very willing 

 to recognize the fact that the great questions 

 which underlie all systematic nomenclature must 

 be first met and settled by the ornithologists. 

 The abundance and attractiveness of birds, and 

 the ease with which they may be collected and 

 studied, have combined to render ornithology one 

 of the best cultivated of all departments of science. 

 In spite of a good deal of crude or '' amateur " 

 work, which, in one way or another, gets pub- 

 lished, it is, I think, not too much to say that in 

 all the various matters which make up the ground- 

 work of systematic science — in the discrimination 



1 A Review of the "Code of Nomenclature and Check-List of 

 the American Ornithologists' Union." 



