294 Fifteenth Supplement to the A. O. U. Check-List. july 
FIFTEENTH SUPPLEMENT TO THE AMERICAN 
ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION CHECK-LIST OF 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 
THe Fourteenth Supplement to the Check-List was published in 
“The Auk’ for July, 1908 (XXV, pp. 343-399). The present 
Supplement gives the results of the Committee’s work at its meetings 
held in Cambridge, Mass., November 16, 1908, and in Washington, 
April 15-17, 1909. At the Washington meeting all questions 
before it relating to the names and status of species, subspecies, 
and higher groups were disposed of in preparation for the new 
(third) edition of the Check-List, the manuscript for which is now 
nearly ready for the press. ‘The present Supplement is therefore 
the final report of the Committee in relation to the preparation of 
the new Check-List. 
It was finally decided, on the ground of convenience, to retain the 
order of arrangement of the higher groups (orders, suborders, 
families, etc.) followed in the former editions of the Check-List, 
for reasons more fully stated in the Preface to the new edition. It 
was also found desirable to omit the numeration of the species. 
It was further decided (in opposition to a former ruling of the 
Committee) to continue to use the possessive form, as heretofore, 
in vernacular names based on the names of persons. 
‘The vernacular names employed in the Check-List were carefully 
scrutinized with a view to their modification in cases where names 
could be found that are more in accord with those in use where _ 
the birds live. A number of popular vernacular names were thus 
substituted for ‘book names.’ It was also decided to omit ‘Amer- 
ican’ as a prefix, as being superfluous in a list of North American 
Birds. On the other hand, European birds, with the same vernac- 
ular names as their American representatives, are distinguished by 
the prefix ‘European.’ 
The Fourteenth Supplement contained a list (/. ¢., p. 399) of 16 
generic cases that had been referred to the Nomenclature Com- 
mission of the International Zodlogical Congress for decision. 
Unfortunately the Committee has been disappointed in its expecta- 
tion of obtaining a report from the Commission in time to incor- 
porate its decisions in the new edition of the Check-List. In the 
