August 2, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



147 



some of the difficulties about as well as can be 

 expected. 



As a basis I have taken four terms in gen- 

 eral use that have (in my opinion) become 

 more or less established in use and concept: 



Abundant. 



Common. 



Scarce. 



Rare. 

 Of course none of these terms can be defined 

 hy absolute numbers or density of population 

 per unit of area. An equal number of song 

 sparrows and golden eagles in a given terri- 

 tory would make either the former decidedly 

 " rare " or the latter phenomenally " abun- 

 dant." Therefore, in defining the terms I 

 have tried to measure them by their effect 

 upon the observer and not by the numerical 

 occurrence of individuals. This, of course, has 

 the objection of accentuating personality 

 somewhat, but it follows the usual conception 

 of the terms, and, if followed consistently, 

 will make all observations of one recorder 

 comparable with each other while affording 

 some degree of uniformity between those of 

 different observers. 



Common. — This is the fundamental or zero 

 of the system and all other terms must from 

 time to time be compared with it. It is ap- 

 plied when individuals are noted in such 

 numbers as to be readily found without spe- 

 cial search. The test of commonness is when 

 the observation of an individual, more or less, 

 arouses little or no interest. When the ob- 

 server passes by with the mental thought, 

 " another song sparrow," and then dismisses 

 the matter from the mind, the species is " com- 

 mon." 



Abundant is applied when the species in- 

 trudes itself upon the senses so repeatedly that 

 one can not help noticing it. In other words, 

 when it is practically always present. The 

 test for abundance is when the observer notes 

 the numbers with a certain amount of inter- 

 ested surprise, and the mental ejaculation is 

 " What ! another song sparrow ? " 



Scarce. — Considerably less than " common." 

 The test of scarcity is when the sight or ob- 

 servation of an individual arouses more or 



less passing interest and self congratulation. 

 The accompanying thought might be expressed 

 as, " Good ! another song sparrow." 



Rare. — Decidedly less in number than 

 " scarce." The test is when the appearance 

 arouses decided enthusiasm and a thought 

 arises such as, " Hurrah ! here is a song 

 sparrow." 



With each of these terms I should advise 

 using qualifying adverbs such as " very " and 

 " rather " ; thus we have " very rare," " rare " 

 and " rather rare " ; " very common," " com- 

 mon " and " rather common," etc. 



Irregular, or its adverbial form " irregu- 

 larly," denotes fluctuation of number at dif- 

 ferent times. 



Local or Locally denotes variability in geo- 

 graphical distribution. 



P. A. Taverner 



Victoria Memorial Museum, 

 Ottawa, Ont. 



" florida weather " 



In reading Mr. A. H. Palmer's remarks on 

 " Winter Weather in Florida " in the issue of 

 Science for May 31, one wonders what un- 

 fortunate circumstances accompanied his ex- 

 periences with Florida weather or whether he 

 ever spent a winter in the state. One must 

 believe from his remarks that in his opinion 

 he has really discovered something about the 

 climate of Florida not hitherto known. 



While we do not question the accuracy of 

 the official records he quotes, they are so ar- 

 ranged as to give an impression that is far 

 from accurate. For instance, one would be led 

 to infer that while California escaped the 

 frosts of the past severe winter practically un- 

 scathed, Florida suffered severely; whereas 

 the facts of the case are exactly the reverse of 

 this. This false impression arises largely 

 from his comparing northern Florida with 

 the coast region of central and southern Cali- 

 fornia, a comparison that is manifestly un- 

 just. He deliberately chooses the coldest part 

 of Florida (the record of — 2 was at Talla- 

 hasse, although he does not say so in his art- 

 icle) for comparison with the warmest parts of 

 California. 



