2QA. Elliot, Canon XL, A. O. U. Code. loct. 



CANON XL, A. O. U. CODE. 



BY D. G. ELLIOT, F. R. S. E. 



The Code formulated by its Committee, and adopted by the 

 American Ornithologists' Union has deservedly received the gen- 

 eral approval of naturalists, not only of those devoted to the par- 

 ticular science for which it was prepared, but also of those whose 

 attention has been directed to other lines of zoological research. 

 And while all zoologists may without reserve and with great profit 

 to themselves cheerfully adopt and assist in maintaining the gen- 

 eral doctrine and special precepts embodied in the Code, yet 

 unhappily we find, like all human productions, it has its element 

 of weakness which, in the opinion of a considerable number of 

 naturalists, seriously impairs the general eftectiveness of its 

 armor of proof. Amid so much that is excellent and conceived 

 in judicial equity upon the broadest and fairest foundations, it is 

 somewhat amazing to find that in one of its most important articles 

 a premium is offered as a reward to ignorance, carelessness, and 

 a general lack of ability to perceive that which alone is proper and 

 right. To spell correctly is the first qualification of any one 

 claiming to have received an education, and one who is unable to 

 do this should not be encouraged to commit errors by the assur- 

 ance of a committee of a scientific society that his faults should be 

 made perpetual, and that all the efforts of those competent to cor- 

 rect his blunders should be resisted to the utmost by the fulmina- 

 tion of this extraordinary Canon XL of an otherwise excellent 

 codification of rules. The writer imputes to those responsible for 

 this Canon, only the best and purest motives, an honest, effort 

 to establish a fixity of nomenclature, and if in the course of this 

 paper his remarks may appear almost too earnest in his criticism 

 of a proposition which he regards as a huge mistake and one apt 

 to create more instabiUty in scientific nomenclature than any injury 

 the abuse !!! of all the purists and classicists in the world could 

 effect, yet he believes at the time this article was formed the 

 majority of the committee considered they were acting in the true 



