1SS4. 1 Coi'rrsipotiifcrirc. ^^3 



elevated, ui-id plateiiu of the interior, and that tliis interior form is again 

 verv different from the forms found at different points along the Pacific 

 coast. These various forms, in their extreme phases, are widely diverse, 

 varving in size, color, and in tlie relative size of the bill, etc.. and mav be 

 more readih' separated from eacli other than can well-defined species be 

 in some other groups of our birds. Yet these very diverse forms of the 

 Song Sparrow are found to intergrade at the points and over the areas 

 where the physical conditions of these several climatic regions of 

 the continent blend, and in the same gradual manner. What occurs in 

 the Song Sparrow occurs also in most species having the same vast extent 

 of habitat, and in a similar way as regards the development of geograph- 

 ical forms under differing physical conditions of environment. It is 

 obviously a gain in the way of exactness of expression to be able to 

 designate these different forms — to give a '-handle to our facts"— by recog- 

 nizing them in our svstems of nomenclature. This recognition is very 

 generally accorded them, but in very different ways. And this brings us 

 to the matter of trinomials. 



A common way of recognizing such forms is. for instance. — to go back 

 to the case of the Song Sparrow, — as follows: Melospiza fasciafa, var. 

 riifitia, using four terms in expressing the name and status of the varietal 

 form in question. This is cumbersome and inconvenient. Another 

 method is to use the term 'subsp.' in place of 'vav.' This is explicit, 

 and expresses the exact relationship of the two forms in question. Still 

 other methods have been tried, as the separation of the subspecific name 

 from the specific by some mark of punctuation, or an arbitrary character, 

 as a letter or figure. But these devices are all needless and burdensome. 

 The trinomial name results from simply dropping the connective term, be 

 it either 'var..' 'subsp..' or an arbitrary character, leaving it to be under- 

 stood that anv form designated by a trinomial is a subspecies of the 

 species indicated bv the second term of the trinomial. Binomials relate 

 always, in the practise of American ornithologists, to non-intergrading 

 forms, hence to species ; w-hile trinomials are only applied to forms which 

 intergrade. Status and relationship are thus as fully understood as would 

 be the case were the whole form of four terms written out. Instead of doing 

 violence to the so-called 'Stricklandian Code,' the trinomial system is a 

 device, as we have stated on other occasions, to meet simply and com- 

 pletelv a condition of things unknown and unsuspected when that, in 

 most respects, admirable system of nomenclatural rules was conceived, 

 and is in accordance with the spirit if not with the letter of that -Code.' 

 It is in no sense a lapse toward polynomialism. 



The merits of this svstem are already becoming recognized abroad, 

 and with greater promptness than, we dare say, the most ardent trinomial- 

 ist had ever ventured to hope, much less expect. In 'The Ibis' for July. 

 1881 (p. 290). the editors, in a review of Mr. Ridgway's Nomenclature 

 of North American Birds, speak as follows: -'On this we may remark, 

 that we cannot denv the advantages of the use of trinomials when strictly 

 limited to such cases as these [intergrading forms], and have little doubt 

 that thev will ultimatelv come into general use. But they can only be 



