i88s-] Correspondence. ^8o 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



{Correspondents are requested to write briefly and to the point. No attention will 

 be paid to anonymous communications.] 



Republication in ' The Auk ' of Descriptions of New North American 

 Birds. — A Suggestion. 



To the Editors of The Auk: — 



Sirs: I would like to make a suggestion or two in relation to 'The Auk 

 as the organ of the A. O..U. One is that in future descriptions of new 

 species or varieties of North American birds, unless originally published 

 in ' The Auk,' be republished in that journal in the next succeeding 

 number, either verbatim or with sufficient fullness to give the diagnostic 

 points, habitat, etc., of the new forms. This may seem objectionable to 

 the (comparatively) few ornithologists to whom the original descriptions 

 are always promptly sent; but many first hear of the new forms by a brief 

 statement in 'The Auk,' announcing the fact of their description, long 

 after the original description appeared. Probably on an average less than 

 two pages of each number would suffice for such a purpose, and I do not 

 think they could be used in a more satisfactory way. I understand the 

 the reason for publishing certain descriptions in such a medium as, for in- 

 stance, the ' Proceedings' of the Biological Society of Washington, but 

 that does not make such place of publication any less inconvenient to 

 many readers of ' The Auk.' 



The second suggestion is that each new form, when described, if recog- 

 ized by the authority that is about to publish the standard list of North 

 American birds, be given a special number or designation by which it shall 

 be known in check lists, indicating its position among its allies, and the 

 official opinion of admitted authority as to its claims to recognition. 



It seems to me that both these suggestions are practical and useful. 



J. C. Merrill, U. S. A. 

 Columbus Barracks. 



Columbus Ohio, August, 1885. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



As previously announced, the annual meeting of the American Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union will be held in New York City, beginning Tuesday, Novem- 

 ber 17. The place of meeting will be, as previously, at the American 

 Museum of Natural History, 77th Street and 8th Avenue. In addition to 

 the reports of Committees, and the usual routine business of such an occa- 

 sion, it is hoped that a good list of scientific papers will be presented, and 

 that the meeting: will be fullv attended. 



