964 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. [Ibis, 



Avicultural Magazine. (Vol. xi. nos. 3-9.) 



Bird-Lore. (Vol. xxii. hop. 1-4.) 



Bird-Notes. (3 ser. vol. iii. nos. 1-8.) 



British Birds. (Vol. xiv. nos. 1-4.) 



Brooklj-n Museum Quarterly. (Vol. vii. nos. 2-3.) 



Bull. So3. Zool. Geneve. (Vol. ii. fasc. 13-18.) 



Canadian Field-Naturalist. (Vol. x.xxiv. nos. 1-2.) 



Club van Nederl. Vogelkund. Jaarber. (No. 10, pts. 1-2.) 



Condor. (Vol. xxii. nos. 1-4.) 



El Ilornero. (Vol. i. no. 4.) 



Fauna ocli Flora. (1920, nos. 1-4.) 



Gerfaut. (Vol. x. fasc. 1-2.) 



Irish Naturalist. (Vol. xxix. nos. 1-9.) 



Journ. Fed. Malay States Mus. (Vol. ix. pt. 1 ; vol. x. pt. 1.) 



Journ, Mus. Comp. Oology. (Vol. i. nos. 3-4.) 



Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siani. (Vol. iii. no. 4 ; vol. iv. no. 1.) 



Orn. Monatsber. (Vol. xxviii. nos. 9-10.) 



Rev. Museu Paulista, (Vol. xi.) 



Rev. d'Hist. nat. appl. L'Oiseau. (Nos. 1-8.) 



Rev. Fran^aise d'Ornithologie. (Nos. 130-137.) 



Scottish Naturalist. (Nos. 99-104.) 



Soutii African Journal of Nat. Hist. (Vol. ii. no. 1.) 



South Australian Ornithologist. (Vol. v. nos, 1-3.J 



Tori (The Aves). (Vol. ii. no. 9.) 



XXXVII. — Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



The Last Phase of the Subspecies. 



Sir, — The student entering upon the study of systematic 

 ornithology to-day will find much diversity of opinion 

 respecting the status of the subspecies. One author would 

 have " practical subspecies," another " sane subspecies/' 

 and another, subspecies ad infinitum. One would partially 

 suppress subspecies by placing their names beneath bold 

 specific captions, and another would eliminate subspecific 

 names from captions and make "pronouncements'' in the 

 body of the text. After nearly half a century of the theory 

 and practice of subspeciation, the result is this confusion of 

 tongues. The cause is not far to seek ; for the subspecies is 

 the outcome of incomplete investigation. 



