7 A Dwight, Plumage Wear and Subspecies. 



Auk 



an. 



his African Birds prior to publication, the end of the month, I 

 shall bear in mind what you say on the Woodpecker but I'have 

 peculiar notions on Species, which, as I believe them correct, so I 

 do not suffer to be influenced by the opinion of others, you will see 

 more of this in my Book of American Birds. Our kindest remem- 

 brance to Mrs. Audubon, and always look upon me as your sincere, 

 but very plain spoken friend. 



W. SWAINSON. 



"P.S. I had a long letter from Chas. Bonaparte J the other day, 

 Vigors 2 is gone to Rome ! ! 



"J. J. Audubon 



c/o Mr. Thomas Fowler, Bookseller, 

 Manchester." 



"Answered 29th Aug. 1830. J. J. A." 



PLUMAGE WEAR IN ITS RELATION TO PALLID 



SUBSPECIES.3 



BY JONATHAN DWIGHT, JR., M. D. 



A more progressive generation of ornithologists will no doubt 

 possess itself of higher standards for estimating the value of sub- 

 species. At present the standards are shifting, dependent too 

 much upon individual opinion and often entirely inadequate, even 

 in the hands of trained observers. Under these circumstances it 

 is not surprising that geographical races are viewed with disfavor 

 by many who realize their shortcomings. The millennium has not 

 arrived when the worn and faded breeding bird will be discarded 

 as an unreliable basis for subspecies, and many of our races rest 



1 Charles Lucian Bonaparte. Born 1803 — died 1857. 



2 Nicholas Ayhvard Vigors. Born 1787 — died 1840. Naturalist. First 

 Secretary of the Zoological Society of London. 



3 Read at the Twenty-second Congress of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, Cambridge, Mass., November 29, 1904. 



