Vol. XX 

 1903 



] Allen, The A. O. U. Check-List. 



There has been so much discontent expressed over the constant 

 changes in the Check-List that it is perhaps proper to consider 

 for a moment whether it is really worth while to try to have an 

 up to-date Check-List of North American birds. Only the older 

 members of the Union can remember why an attempt was ever 

 made to have an authoritative Check-List. It is perhaps a familiar 

 matter of history, however, to all, that at the time of the founding 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union there were two rival check- 

 lists, each by an eminent authority, which differed at many points. 

 Each of the authors of the two lists had a nearly equal following, 

 and there was consequent confusion and lack of uniformity in the 

 names currently in use for many of our birds. This was recognized 

 as a serious evil, likely to increase with the lapse of time. On the 

 founding of the Union it was conceived that if a Committee on 

 the nomenclature of North American birds were appointed by the 

 Union, to consist of five of the then leading authorities on the 

 subject, that this Committee could discuss and harmonize all points 

 of difference and formulate a check-list that should be a uniform 

 standard, and be endorsed as such by the LTnion. Most fortu- 

 nately this was the happy result of the very extended labors of 

 this Committee, whose first work was to formulate and agree upon 

 a set of rules for its guidance in compiling the check-list. These 

 rules were pubUshed as the A. O. U. ' Code of Nomenclature,' 

 and, though containing a number of radical departures from 

 previous similar codes, have received wide acceptance and have 

 had very great influence in shaping present nomenclatorial usage 

 in all departments of zoology, and even in botany. 



The Code and Check-List were not expected nor intended to 

 set bounds to the progress of North American ornithology. It 

 was presumed that new light might show the necessity of chang- 

 ing a few names, and that new material might modify our concep- 

 tions of the status of a number of species and subspecies, and add 

 some new forms to the Ust. This has happened, and to a much 

 greater extent than was anticipated. Hence it became desirable 

 to continue the Committee, whose function it has since been to 

 revise all proposed changes in names and all proposed addi- 

 tions to the Check-List. The eleven supplements that have been 

 issued constitute the published record of its work. 



