^"Is^'^J General Notes. 229 



me by Dr. C. Hai-t Merriam, Chief of the Biological Survey, from whose 

 letter I quote : " The bulk of the contents is grass seed (over two hundred 

 seeds of one kind, Patiicum, and a dozen of another, Paspalum). There 

 was also a blackberry seed, a ragweed seed, and four quartz pebbles." 



Dendroica vigorsi. Pine Warbler. — -While at the middle eastern 

 portion of the island I saw, hopping about some bushes and fence rails, a 

 lone Pine Warbler which I shot. It proved to be a young female in the 

 first plumage. 



Bartramia longicauda. Bartramian Sandpiper. — A nest containing 

 three eggs was found at Tuckernuck Island, June 22, 1896. It was located 

 on the ground in a small bunch of grass, and was well concealed. The 

 bird flew off the nest. I am told that the young leave the nest as soon as 

 they are able to run. 



Merganser serrator. Red-breasted Merganser. — One of my old 

 shooting companions informed me that he saw thirteen Red-breasted 

 Mergansers, in a flock at West Hampton, Great South Bay, Long Island, 

 N. Y., July 29, 1891. They were in moult and could not fly. I think it 

 probable they were birds that had been too badly wounded early in the 

 season to migrate. — George H. M.\ckay, Nantucket, Mass. 



The most General Fault of the A. O. U. Check-List. — This is a 

 serious matter which I have hitherto refrained from bringing up, partly 

 on account of its hopelessness, in the present arrangement and number- 

 ing of the species, partly because it is to some extent a question of orni- 

 thological expertness regarding which opinions may reasonbly differ. 

 But now, having occasion to retraverse the whole ground of North 

 American ornithology, in the preparation of the Fifth Edition of my 

 ' Key,' the blemish I shall point out obtrudes itself continually upon my 

 attention ; I cannot longer maintain the reticence I have hitherto pre- 

 served without seeming to condone the impropriety by tacit acquiescence ; 

 and I desire to put myself upon record in the matter, lest my silence be 

 imputed to unrighteousness. This is the first general protest I make 

 public on certain subjects concerning which I was often found in a 

 more or less respectable minority of two or one, when various questions 

 were put to vote for the official decision of the Committee over which 

 I had for manj' years the honor to preside. 



When we decided to embody the expression of our classificatory and 

 nomenclatui-al wisdom in the concrete form of a Check-List, the question 

 of the most eligible linear sequence of species, genera, and higher groups 

 of course came up at the outset. All lists of our birds had before pro- 

 ceeded in time-honored fashion from the higher to the lower groups : 

 and this high to low method had been invariably intended and implied, 

 whether the Raptores or the Passeres were in fact considered highest. 

 We proposed to reverse this order, and go from low to high — in other 

 words, to turn such previous lists as those of Baird, Coues, or Ridgwav 

 " hind part before" ; which proposition was carried into effect. I favored 



