260 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 
be guilty of—a le. An objection may at first sight appear in case 
of the last, Hemerocallis, where a second name H. Liliastrum 
occurs, and which has been since segregated into another genus. 
We admit the force of the objection only in case that the name 
Hemerocaliis arbitrarily and contrary to all reasonable pre- 
cedent, be reserved for the segregated genus of which - H. 
Liliastrum Linn. now forms a component. This would mean more 
and more unreasonable changes making confusion worse confounded; 
for H. Lilio Asphodelus is the undisputed type of the Iinnaean 
genus. Not one perhaps of all the staunchest followers of the 
supposed principle of the Vienna Code has ever even for a moment 
thought of questioning the validity of the Linnaean genera Ery- 
thronium, Mussaenda and Hydrocharis, for they are attributed to 
him in all books that have them. Yet the very rules fabricated 
require that we reject these 
It follows then that it is a very difficult matter for code makers 
to elaborate rules which are expected to make Linnaeus fall in 
line with their arbitrary decisions. It sometimes seems a pity 
that he never could have foreseen that 1753 was to be the beginning 
of botanical nomenclature. With codes as with arguments if one 
starts wrong one must pile up more and more inconsistencies to 
try to make an unreasonable proposition seem plausible. Ii this 
were a fable we would point the obvious moral that it is pleasant 
to make arbitrary rules only when we do not expect to have them 
kept. 
OUR WINTER BIRDS. 
The chief event in the bird world this winter was the presence 
of the Robin in each month and notably in January and February. 
The birds seen here were doubtless those having the most northern 
range, the severity of the weather having driven them south to 
places where they could find water. The individuals observed in 
this locality were usually seen near the edge of a lake where the 
water did not freeze. That the Robins could endure very cold 
weather, when the temperature was many. degrees below zero, 
shows that it is not the severity of a climate that caused the birds 
to migrate, but the scarcity of food and water. This isthe only 
