"2 '7 2 Meetttig of the America?! Ornithologists' Union. [October 



much had been accomplished, there was still much to be done, 

 and therefore the report now rendered must be in the nature of a 

 report of progress. 



The first thing the Committee had to determine was the boun- 

 daries of the region to be included ; and it was decided that North 

 America, as regards the present list of birds, was to be understood 

 as including the continent north of Mexico, Lower California, 

 and Gi'eenland. It had also to determine what evidence 

 should be required for the admission of a species into the list ; 

 this it was decided must be proof of its actual capture within the 

 prescribed limits. The Committee also found it necessary, in 

 order to determine the tenability of names, to consider in 

 detail the principles of nomenclature. For this purpose it 

 took, as the most convenient starting point, the ' Stricklandian ' 

 or ' B. A. Code,' modifying and supplementing it to the best of 

 its ability to make it meet the contingencies of modern science. 

 The chief innovations are the adoption of the tenth (1758) 

 edition of the ' Systema Naturalis ' of Linnaeus as the starting- 

 point for the binomial system of nomenclature, and of trinomials 

 for the designation of subspecies. While the spirit of the old 

 code is maintained in strictness, many of its provisions are carried 

 out in greater detail, in the hope of presenting acceptable rules 

 for cases hitherto but imperfectly provided for. 



On the completion of this portion of the work, and after 

 having gone carefully over the matter of genera and subgenera, 

 the Committee, with the view of expediting the work before it, 

 divided itself into two sub-committes, to one of which (consist- 

 ing of Messrs. Ridgway, Brewster, and Henshaw) was assigned 

 the duty of fixing the status of the species and subspecies, and to 

 the other (consisting of Dr. Coues and Mr. Allen) that of codi- 

 fying the rulings of the Committee on principles of nomenclature. 



Each Sub-committee later laid the results of its work before the 

 full Committee, by whom it was duly ratified. Wherever doubt 

 arose in reference to the rank of genera or subgenera, or the 

 status of species or subspecies, appeal was at once made to spec- 

 imens, and decided by careful examination of abundant material. 



The voluminous report of the Committee on the special subject 

 of rules was not fully in readiness for the press, but the final 

 codification was so far advanced that the Committee was able to 

 give the full report in substance, and to a large extent in its com- 



