170 Recent Literature. 



this country, or to appreciate tlie thorou<fhly substantial cliaracter of 

 the evidence on which it is based." * Mr. Ridgway, in fact, had the 

 preceding year (1875) t adopted a purely trinomial system for the desig- 

 nation of local or intergrading forms, superseding it, however, and as we 

 believe unwisely, two years later, by interposing Greek letters between 

 specific and varietal names, the reason for which he appears to have now 

 for the first time made public. 



The necessity of trinomials being granted, there still seems to us no 

 reason why the triple name should be rendered needlessly cumbersome 

 l)y the virtual interposition of a fourth term, as " var.," " subsp.," a Greek 

 letter, or other arbitrary sign, between the specific and varietal names. 

 If anything is to be thus interposed, the designation " var." seems to be 

 the least objectionable, being shorter than " subsp." and less open to com- 

 plication than any system of arbitrary signs, " var." being of course thus 

 used in a purely technical, and not in the usual " dictionary " sense of the 

 word "variety," just as "family," in its technical use in zoology, has come 

 to have special significance. As Mr. Ridgway observes, tlie sooner an 

 agreement is reached respecting the method of writing trinomials, the 

 better, and why has not simplicity here great merit ? There must, in the 

 nature of the case, always be diversity of opinion as to how slight a varia- 

 tion should be entitled to nominal recognition ; in a polymorphic species, 

 for example, like Melospiza faxciata, the number of namable geographical 

 races may vary, let us say, from three to half a dozen, in accordance with 

 the views or predilections of different writers, or of the same writer at differ- 

 ent times, in which case is it probable that the y or S of A will be the y 

 or S of B or C ? To cite a case already in hand, Melosp'iza fafciata, y of 

 Ridgway, 187 7, is fallax, while Melospiza faaciata, y of Ridgway, 1879, is 

 (/attnta, and fallax is now " 8 fallax." The use of the Greek characters 

 by the early systematists, as Linne, Erxleben, Gmelin, etc , being simply 

 a system of numeration, and relating, in nearly nine cases out of ten, to 

 forms of an albinistic or melanistic character, or resulting from domesti- 

 cation or hybridization, seems to have little force as a precedent bearing 

 upon the matter of trinomials as a designation for geographical races or 

 incipient species. 



As already stated, Mr. Ridgway Avas the first to adopt the system of 

 pure trinomials, and we regret to note his divergence therefrom, — espe- 

 cially since they have been since systematically used by Coues in his 

 " Birds of the Colorado Valley," as well as in some of his earlier and con- 

 temporaneous papers on birds and mannnals, and also by Brewster and 

 other writers, in this Bulletin and elsewhere, and since, furthermore, each 

 month shows a growing tendency to its uniform adoption by American 



* Progress of Orii. in the United States, etc., Am. Kat., Vol. X, p. 550, 

 September, 1876. 



t Proc. Essex Institute, Vols. VI and VIII (separates dated March, 1875). 



