NoveMBER 1, 1918] 
the University of Oregon as professor of geol- 
ogy. 
Gerorce W. Muscrave has resigned his posi- 
tion in the Bureau of Soils, United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, to become assistant 
professor of agronomy at Rutgers College. 
Dr. R. Kuno, formerly in charge of the de- 
partment of protozoology of the Imperial Seri- 
cultural Experiment Station of Japan, and last 
year temporary assistant at the Rockefeller 
Institute in New York City, has been ap- 
pointed instructor in zoology at the Univer- 
sity of Illinois. 
Mrs. Heten B. Owens has been appointed 
instructor in mathematics at Cornell Univer- 
sity. 
JosEPH WARREN PHELAN has been ap- 
pointed. lecturer on industrial chemistry at 
Harvard University. Harlan True Stetson 
has been appointed instructor in astronomy in 
the same institution. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 
THE SCIENTIFIC NAME OF THE PASSENGER 
PIGEON 
Tue technical name of the passenger pigeon 
has for many years been Ectopistes migratorius 
(Linneus) (= Columba migratoria Linneus, 
“ Syst. Nat.,” ed. 12, I., 1766, p. 285). There 
is, however, another name, Columba canadensis 
Linneus (“ Syst. Nat.,” ed. 12, I., 1766, p. 
284), based on the Turtur canadensis of Bris- 
son (“Ornith.,” I., 1760, p. 118), that needs 
consideration. Reference to Brisson shows 
conclusively that his detailed description is 
that of the female passenger pigeon, as he 
mentions particularly the rufescent tail-spots. 
Both Columba canadensis Linneus and Co- 
lumba migratoria Linneus are of equal per- 
tinence, and there seems to be no reason for 
the rejection of the former, since both the 
International and the American Onithologists’ 
Union codes of nomenclature provide defi- 
nitely for the enforcement of the principle of 
anteriority (page precedence) in such cases. 
We should, therefore, hereafter call the passen- 
ger pigeon Ectopistes canadensis (Linneus). 
Harry C. OBERHOLSER 
SCIENCE 
445 
ALLEGED REDISCOVERY OF THE PASSENGER 
PIGEON 
STATEMENT BY JOHN M. CLARKE, DIRECTOR 
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
The enclosed letter from Mr. M. Rasmussen, 
of Amsterdam, N. Y., is in reply to an in- 
quiry from me regarding a statement of his 
discovery which Mr. Rasmussen had left with 
one of my associates at the State Museum. 
I have had a personal interview with Mr. 
Rasmussen since the date of the enclosed 
letter, in which he tells me that he has been 
a student and observer of birds for twenty- 
five years; that he had with him on this date, 
October 1, Mr. C. O. Wilson and Mr. William 
Sanders, of Amsterdam, both students, and 
that they were together for a bird study trip 
through the country in the vicinity of West 
Galway and Charlton, N. Y. 
56 GLEN AVE., 
AMSTERDAM, N. Y., October, 5, 1918. 
Dr. JoHN M. CLARKE, 
Director, State Museum, 
Albany, N. Y. 
Dear Sir: Answering your letter of yesterday: 
Yes I am absolutely sure that the birds were pas- 
senger pigeons and not the mourning dove. I 
could not have made this positive observation by 
seeing the flock, because we did not get close 
enough to make sure, but some were in a buckwheat 
field on the opposite side of the road from the 
field where we raised the flock, and because we 
knew, by seeing the flock and by the whistling 
sound of their wings, that we had seen wild 
pigeons we took precaution to get as close to them 
as possible. Two of us were fortunate enough to 
have a bird light on a low limb of a tree only a 
few feet in front of us, as we were standing still 
under cover in the edge of the woodlet, while my 
dog was raising the birds in the field. We were 
so close that we could see the orange-red skin about 
the eyes, and the bluish color of the back and the 
head with no black spot near the ear region; also 
the large size of the bird convinced us that we 
had a passenger pigeon before us, and that we had 
seen a small flock of them a few minutes before. 
The mourning dove is not so rare a bird to me. 
I have seen small flocks of them from time to 
time during the twenty-five years I have lived in 
this state. 
I never but once before saw wild passenger 
