^°i's9^''] Correspondetice. I^c; 



paragraph of the Code of Nomenclature of the A. O. U. should be read 

 to the ' shortcomers ' so often that to obtain relief thev would remedy 

 their omissions. 



Canon II of the Code should be amended by striking out the last clause 

 and inserting "and a species shall not be considered named until 

 provided with both a scientific and a vernacular name." This would 

 give us instant relief, as rather than see their names replaced by some 

 others as describer, the real describers would do their duty to save their 

 rightful honors. If it were not for the above clause we could get even 

 with the describers by furnishing the vernacular name ourselves and 

 tacking our name to the vernacular name, and so steal half of the coveted 

 honor. 



Yours respectfully, 



F. Stephens. 



Witch Creek, Cal., 

 Feb. 1895. 



Cold Storage as an Aid to the Bird Collector. 



To THE Editors of ' The Auk ' : — 



Dear Sirs, — It is possible that some of the readers of 'The Auk ' mav 

 sometime find themselves in the very unsatisfactory position that I 

 found myself last September, when I returned from a successful dav's 

 collecting trip only to confront an emergency i-equiring prompt attention, 

 which of course meant the loss of the birds. 



Hastily saving two or three of the more important ones, the remainder 

 were packed, just as they were brought in from the field, in a box and 

 placed in the freezing room of a local cold storage concern. A week later 

 I visited the place with the intention of taking them out, but upon 

 examination I found them in perfect condition, and there and then decided 

 to make an experiment, and accordingly left the lot for an indefinite 

 period. Evei'y ornithologist and collector appreciates the fact that some- 

 times an opportunity occurs to secure a fine series of some bird, — an 

 opportunity that may not occur again for many years, — and it is irretriev- 

 ably lost because pressure of business stands like a w-all between him 

 and the time necessary for the proper preservation of the skins. Being 

 confronted with this situation last fall, and after the favorable start made 

 by the first dozen of birds put in, I determined to solve, if possible, the 

 problem ; so during the latter part of September and the first part of 

 October I secured a nice series of the birds sought, together with a scat- 

 tering lot of Sparrows, Woodpeckers, Canada Jays, etc., birds ranging in 

 size from a Brown Creeper to a Flicker, some 9S in all. Carefully 

 replacing the cotton in their throats, each bird was slipped into a cone 



