66 WiDMANN, Yosemite Valley Birds. \^^^ 



however, that the limits of the human eye and of the vernier scale 

 will not be the only goal of the ornithologist, for true science does 

 not receive much uplifting from the mere renaming of a few 

 handfuls of skin and feathers. How well revision and renaming 

 have worked in the past, when species were the units, is shown by 

 the long array of synonyms that burden many a page. Synonymy 

 might fittingly be called the science of the blunders of our pre- 

 decessors, and we ourselves shall need deliverance from an intol- 

 erable load of names unless our fragile subspecific refinements are 

 woven of stronger threads. We discover and name trivialities 

 because we like to do it, and new names loom very large even if 

 they mean little. We confuse nomenclature and ornithology, for- 

 getful that names which should be the tools of the ornithologist 

 may easily become the playthings of the systematist. If the sub- 

 species be relegated to its proper place and held in proper per- 

 spective, we shall neither flounder in a flood of names nor fail to 

 perceive the opportunities which lie open before us. There is 

 more serious work on hand than the naming of subspecies if the 

 advance of ornithology is to keep pace with that of kindred 

 sciences. 



YOSEMITE VALLEY BIRDS. 



BY O. WIDMANN. 



To demonstrate the efficacy of bird protection by exclusion of 

 firearms the Yosemite Valley is an excellent example. During a 

 short stay of three and a half days, from noon of May 21 to early 

 morning of May 25, 1903, fifty-seven species were noticed. The 

 valley is seven miles long by a width of one half to one mile, but 

 only a part of this area in the vicinity of the so-called village was 

 subjected to a close scrutiny, and no attempt was made to inves- 

 tigate the bird fauna of the surrounding higher regions. 



Discovered in 185 1, the valley with its enclosing peaks was 

 granted by Congress in 1864 to the State of California on condi- 

 tion that it should be held as a " State Park for public use, resort 



