14 CODE OF NOMENCLATURE. 



(ri) Names differing like Pica and Picus both tenable ; differing 

 only like Spermophila and Spermophilus, the later one untenable. 



(<?) The maxim, " A name is only a name, and has no necessary 

 meaning," affirmed ; barbarous, hybrid, meaningless, or descriptively 

 inappropriate names tenable. 



(/) Original orthography of names to be preserved, unless a typo- 

 graphical error is evident. 



(q) Transliteration of names, and terminations of personal names, 

 to be provided for. 



(r) Names raised in rank (as of a subspecies raised to a species, or 

 of a subgenus raised to a genus) to be tenable in the new position. 



(s) The authority for a name to be that of the original namer. 



(/) When a generic name sinks into synonymy, any current family 

 or subfamily name derived from such generic name to become unten- 

 able (e.g., * Sylvicolidae ' untenable, since Sylvicola is preoccupied). 



(u) Rule thirteenth of the Stricklandian Code (rendering a specific 

 name untenable when used for a genus) to be ignored. 



With reference to the plan and form of the proposed Amer- 

 ican Ornithologists' Union ' List of North American Birds/ it 

 was proposed and unanimously agreed : 



1. That the term 'North American,' as applied to the proposed 

 List of Birds, be held to include the continent of North America north 

 of the present United States and Mexican boundary, and Greenland ; 

 and the peninsula of Lower California, with the islands naturally be- 

 longing thereto. 



2. That species be numbered consecutively, and that subspecies 

 be enumerated by affixing the letters a, b, t, etc. to the number borne 

 by their respective species ; provided, that any subspecies of a species 

 not included in the North American Fauna shall be separately num- 

 bered as if a species. 



3. That stragglers or accidental visitors, not regarded as compo- 

 nents of the North American Fauna, be distinguished by having their 

 respective numbers in brackets. 



4. That any subsequent additions to the list be interpolated in 

 systematic order, and bear the number of the species immediately pre- 

 ceding, with the addition of a figure (i, 2, etc., as the case may re- 

 quire), separated from the original number by a period or decimal 

 point, thus giving the interpolated number a decimal form (e.g., 243.1, 

 etc.), in order that the original numbers may be permanent. 



