VoLXX-j California Meeting of the A. O. U. 299 



subspecies ; the question is whetlier a bird name should be an 

 attempt to express the facts and theories of evolution, or whether 

 a bird name should be a convenient handle to forms exhibiting no 

 intergradation, the species of to-day. In trying to manufacture a 

 nomenclature for birds of remote ages, past and future, are we not 

 putting an impediment in the way of the study of existing birds ? 

 What then shall we call the Mocking Bird of the writer of the 

 old tract on Carolina, the Turdiis viinor c'mereo-alhus non viaculatus 

 of Catesby, the Tiirdus polyglottos of Linnceus, \\\& Mimus poJyglot- 

 tus of Boie, the Mimiis polyglottns, var. caiidatiis of Coues, the 

 Mimus polyglottos polyglottos^ Mimas polyglottos Icucopterus of 

 Mearns ? Call \\\Q.m. 2^ Mimus polyglottos, giving in the general 

 description of the species geographic variation along with the 

 other variations.^ 



THE CALIFORNIA MEETING OF THE AMERICAN 

 ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION. 



BY J. A. ALLEN. 



In the April number of ' The Auk' (XX, pp. 245, 246) reference 

 was made to a proposed special meeting of the A. O. U. to be 

 held in California some time in May of the present year. Details 

 were given of the itinerary for the outward trip and of the probable 

 cost of transportation for the round trip. The proposition met 

 with such cordial approval that two Pullman cars were required for 

 the accommodation of the members and their friends who desired 

 to avail themselves of so favorable an opportunity to visit the 

 Pacific coast. Chicago was the point of rendezvous for the depar- 



1 Since the above was written, I have read Dr. Allen's observations on 

 ' Species. Varieties, and Geographical Races ' in the ' Mammals and Winter 

 Birds of East Florida" (Bull. Mus. Comp. Z06I., Vol. II, no. 3, April, 1S71. 

 pp. 242-249). So far have we drifted, that the republication of these obser- 

 vations, written more than thirty years ago, would be a timely elucidation of 

 the present questions in ornithological nomenclature. 



