336 Phillips, The Hawaiian Linnet. Uuiy 



72. Hylocichla guttata auduboni. Audubon's Hermit Thrush. — 

 Two taken in Rocky Can3'on, Oct. 11, 1906. 



73. Hylocichla guttata nanus. Dwarf Hermit Thrush. — One 

 taken on the Mimbres — Black Canyon Divide, Oct. 5, 1908. 



74. Planesticus migratorius propinquus. Western Robin. — 

 Common over all the area, but not noted above 8000 feet. 



75. Sialia mexicana bairdi. Chestnut-backed Bluebird. — A 

 number seen at the Alum Camp Oct. 16, 1907. 



76. Sialia currucoides. Mountain Bluebird.— Common over all 

 the area, latest date being Oct. 17, 1908. 



THE HAWAIIAN LINNET, CARPODACUS NUTANS 

 GRINNELL. 



BY JOHN C. PHILLIPS. 



In 'The Auk' for June, 1912, Mr. Grinnell gives a new name to 

 the introduced Hnnet of the Hawaiian Isles. I propose to discuss 

 briefly both the name itself and the specific value of the form named. 



In the first place, the word itself, viutans, implies a very definite 

 condition, namely, a sudden germinal variation expressed in the 

 soma as a Mendelian dominant, dominant because it is not possible 

 to conceive of a recessive character, getting the upper hand in the 

 wild unless it is of marked selectional value. 



The word mutation means "the act or process of changing" but 

 in the biological sense which it has had since the time of de Vries, 

 a very definite meaning has been given to it, often theoretical 

 perhaps, but nevertheless quite clear. Unfortunately the word 

 has been misapplied to little understood types of variation, — for 

 instance, to rare Mendelian combinations, to the loss of one or 

 more characters from the germ cells, to the products of disease, 

 etc., etc. 



The name Carpodacus mutans, then, would imply that the 

 following experimental conditions must hold. First the new form 

 must breed true, or as true as the old, even when taken back to its 

 original continental range. Second, in crosses with typical orange 



