August, 1883.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



59 



and naming our birds. His extensive 

 knowledge of the subject, the thorough- 

 ness and skill which he disj^lays in the ex- 

 ecution of what he undertakes, all mark 

 him as pre-eminently fitted for such a 

 work, and if this was a case of Ridgway 

 versus Coues, students would as soon ac- 

 cept the system of the one as of the other. 

 But it is a question of choosing between 

 an established order of affairs and one 

 which seeks to disturb it. The system 

 adopted by the Smithsonian Institution 

 has been used almost exclusively by Amer- 

 ican students since 1859, at least, and they 

 consider they may safely continue to use 

 what is thought sufficiently correct for the 

 use of that institution. 



They felt it a hard enough strain iipon 

 their patience to be forced to learn the 

 new names and new arrangements when 

 the "new nomenclature" was issued. It 

 was no slight inconvenience to drop such 

 familiar names as the steina nigra of Au- 

 dubon for the awkward and repulsive tri- 

 nomial IlydroeheUdon laviformis surina- 

 mensis imposed upon an inoffensive bird 

 by Mr. Ridgway. The new mode was, 

 however, accepted without much murmur- 

 ing, if without much enthusiasm ; but this 

 additional jumbling up of names, this fur- 

 ther splitting of already much split hairs 

 was too much for the human nature which 

 is attached to the average student and the 

 nomenclature of the " Check List" has not 

 been iTsed as much as its author desires- 



No doiibt Dr. Coues feels uncomfortable 

 about the matter; but while no one will 

 question his right to prepare as many sys- 

 tems as he may find amusement in, he 

 must remember that the same unwritten 

 law which grants him this right, gives to 

 others the permission to make use of these 

 systems, or not, just as they may elect. — ; 

 Montag^ie Chmnberlain. 



We shall be compelled to postpone for 

 one month our articles on Mississippi Val- 

 ley migration. We have valuable matter 

 in hand for next number. 



In 1878 we became an ornithologist. In 

 that year we saw the necessity at once of 

 a check list by ornithologists for ornitholo- 

 gists, and not by one man. We have ad- 

 vocated this always. When we began to 

 read ornithology we were fearfully an- 

 noyed with the ugly Latin phrases used 

 by vain and egotistical writers. We came 

 .to the conclusion that thoughtful writers 

 would give the Latin name of each bird 

 once and be content with plain English 

 afterwards. When Greek meets Greek it 

 is well to speak Greek ; but there is no 

 sense in using a language in a beautiful 

 science that not one per cent of the read- 

 ers understand. We have boldly advocated 

 reform in this alone for years. Now Mr. 

 Chamberlain has manfully come to the front 

 and is doing good work. A short time ago 

 Benjamin F. Butler, who is without ques- 

 tion the smartest man on this continent 

 to-day, in his Exeter speech and also at 

 Harvard, took precisely the same ground 

 that we have advocated for yaars in favor 

 of a practical education ; but right on top 

 of this Charles Francis Adams, Jr., in his 

 Phi Beta Kappa oration gave some tel- 

 ling blows in favor of better English and 

 less Greek and Latin, and almost the en- 

 tire press of North America have sustained 

 his views. We could give a volume of ex- 

 tracts endorsing Mr. Adams, but we have 

 not the room for them, or even enough 

 plain English, let alone Greek and Latin. 



A man by the name of Clemens who pub- 

 lishes a small paper in Cleveland, Ohio, 

 took four of our articles in one number 

 and gave no credit. A man with those prin- 

 ciples would not hesitate to rob a hen roost. 



Honesty is gettin' scarcer ebery year 

 'case dar is more people ter pervide. De 

 more we multiplies, de fiirder from natur' 

 we is, an' de furder we gits from natiu"', de 

 less honesty we'se got. — Arkansav! Trav- 

 eler. 



Plain English has been heartily endorsed, 

 only one dissenting and they supposed that 

 the entire abolition of Latin was advocated. 



