?S Elliot, Truth versus Error. [jan. 



TRUTH VERSUS ERROR. 



PA' D. G. ELLIOT F. R\ S. E. 



In his defence of Canon XL of the A. O. U. Code, my friend 

 Dr. Allen has accused me, half heartedly it must be confessed, 

 and as if he was not quite sure of his premises, of misrepresenting 

 the beauties and advantages of that wonderful production, and 

 also the beneficial results, which in his opinon, the enlightened 

 doctrine it preaches has achieved. If I was capable of com- 

 mitting the crime so delicately mentioned (and I hardly deem it 

 necessary to defend myself from the charge), in this instance, it 

 •would be as profitless and unnecessary as an attempt to blacken 

 coal, for it would be quite impossible with all the skill possessed 

 by the most adroit manipulator to make the Gospel of Error this 

 Canon advocates appear in a more unlovely aspect than it has itself 

 so successfully accomplished. The charge made of misrepresen- 

 tation, however, is the familiar plea of all those who try to defend 

 an indefensible cause, and is synonymous with the legal maxim 

 " when you have no case, abuse the opposing Counsel." Stability 

 and uniformity of nomenclature is the goal which all naturalists 

 are striving to attain, and after fifteen years, during which this 

 Canon has been permitted to instill its pernicious counsel in the 

 minds of ornithologists entirely unopposed, yet all the success 

 that Dr. Allen can claim it has achieved is, that " it has practically 

 thus far rendered fixed and permanent the nomenclature of 

 North American ornithology, in North America at /cast," and 

 thereupon he qualifies this by adding " in so far as the emenda- 

 tion or rejection of names upon purely philological grounds is 

 concerned." The after-thought, italicised by me above, was most 

 happily grasped by its author, and thus he saved himself from 

 a disastrous overthrow. It is also stated that " so nearly all 

 the leading authorities in vertebrate zoology in this country" 

 are among its supporters and advocates. " So nearly all " while 

 a very safe way of enumerating, is not any more definite as 

 regards numbers than is the expression "few" applied to those 

 "'leading authorities" whom Dr. Allen kindly permits to join 

 I )r. Coues and myself in rejecting this Canon. 



