V9l i9aP n ] Notes and News. 125 



eluding the latest draft of the International Code. Among the first Euro- 

 pean ornithologists to accept the more important of these innovations, 

 and to show a just appreciation of the principle of subspecies and trinomi- 

 alism, was the author of 'Die Vogel der palaarktischen Fauna'; and it is 

 therefore all the more to be regretted that he has gone so far beyond the 

 original intention of the non-emendation principle as to make it a menace 

 rather than an aid to stability in nomenclature. 



J. A. Allen. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At the last Congress of the A. O. U., held in New York City November 

 13-16, 1905, the Union authorized the Committee on the Nomenclature 

 and Classification of North American Birds to prepare a new edition of the 

 A. O. U. Check-List, with a view to its early publication. As the nomen- 

 clature of the Check-List was based on the A. O. U. Code, published twenty 

 years ago, it was also deemed advisable to make a critical examination of 

 the Code, with a view to amending some of its provisions, to make it meet 

 more fully the present requirements of zoological nomenclature. In 

 order to make such a revision available for use in the preparation of 

 the new edition of the Check-List, a special committee was appointed 

 to take up the matter with as little delay as possible, its report to be 

 submitted to a meeting of the Council to be called specially to act upon 

 it. The Committee appointed on the revision of the Code consists of the 

 following: J. A. Allen (chairman), Theodore Gill, Henry W. Henshaw, 

 Harry C. Oberholser, Wilfrid H. Osgood, Charles W. Richmond, Witmer 

 Stone. Within a few days after the adjournment of the Congress the 

 Committee on the Code was called to meet in Washington on Dec. 11, 

 1905. A four day's session was held, beginning on this date, at which 

 all of the members were present. Several important and a considerable 

 number of minor changes were adopted, nearly all unanimously and 

 the others with only one or two (in one case only) dissenting votes. It 

 is expected that a special meeting of the Council will be held in Washing- 

 ton about the middle of January, to receive and act upon the report of 

 the Code Committee. A meeting of the Nomenclature Committee will 

 immediately follow, to begin work upon the new edition of the Check-List. 



In this connection it may be safe to premise that probably the forth- 

 coming third edition of the ' Check-List ' will be quite different from either 

 of its predecessors. In these days of rapid progress in zoological research, 

 twenty years is a long period, and while the classification adopted in the 



