Makch 4, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



375 



species.* I may add that lie had the con- 

 tents of all the leading museums of our 

 country at his disposal. 



Another member of the union, who also 

 brought together all the available material 

 from the American museums, published a 

 monograph of a holaretic genus of birds 

 last year.f He recognized 35 different 

 forms by name, 22 from the nearctic region 

 and 13 from the palearetie region. As a 

 basis for this work he had no less than 

 2,150 specimens, a material which, if it had 

 represented evenly the range of the genus, 

 might have been sufficient to give an ex- 

 haustive account of the various forms and 

 might have led to valuable generalizations 

 with regard to their origin and their dis- 

 tributional migrations, but the ridiculous 

 inadequacy of the palearetie material for the 

 purpose may be plainly seen when I state 

 that while the American specimens at his 

 command numbered 2,108 specimens, or an 

 average of over 95 specimens per recog- 

 nized form, the European and Asiatic ma- 

 terial consisted of 42 specimens, or 3^ 

 specimens per recognized form. Of three 

 of the latter there is not a single specimen 

 in any American museum. 



One more striking example, this time de- 

 rived from the class of mammals. The 

 only museum in North America which has 

 made strenuous efforts to obtain palearetie 

 mammals, and which by all odds contains 

 the largest material from the holaretic 

 region, possesses about 94,000 specimens 

 from the nearctic, as against about 3,300 

 from the entire palearetie. It is safe to 

 say that this enormous discrepancy is even 

 excelled in the other museums. A similar 

 census of the birds in the same museum 

 was not practicable, but it is perfectly safe 

 to say that the proportions are nearly the 



* J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 XIX., 1903, pp. 126, 129, etc. 



t H. C. Oberholser, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 XXIV., No 1271, 1902, pp. 801-884. 



same, or thirty nearctic specimens to each 

 palearetie. The discrepancy is the more 

 marked when we consider that the area 

 comprised in the palearetie region is nearly 

 twice as large as that of the nearctic, so 

 that area for area the palearetie material 

 in our museums is scarcely one and two 

 thirds per cent, of the total holaretic ma- 

 terial. 



It is unfair, therefore, to blame the 

 modern American biologist for his failure 

 to enter a higher philosophic sphere. He 

 has the ambition to do so, he has also the 

 ability; moreover, he has done part of the 

 preliminary work and done it exceedingly 

 well. But as yet he is without the means. 



And now, how can this unfortunate con- 

 dition be remedied? 



There is only one way, viz., the acquisi- 

 tion of more and better palearetie material 

 and records, collected by professionally 

 trained observers ; worked up together with 

 and conformably with the nearctic ma- 

 terial and records already gathered and 

 elaborated with such signal success. Be- 

 cause of the possession of the latter it fol- 

 lows of necessity that the American biol- 

 ogist should also gather and elaborate the 

 former. The work already done pre- 

 eminently qualifies him to carry the whole 

 to a satisfactory conclusion. He has done 

 the first part well ; he will do the remaining 

 work equally well, if only given the chance. 



It may seem strange to call for more 

 material and more records in reply to the 

 accusation that we are losing ourselves in 

 that very kind of work. It must be borne 

 in mind, however, that what is here called 

 for is not the insatiate, indiscriminate ac- 

 cumulation with no clear purpose in view, 

 but a well-digested, premeditated search for 

 the material which bears directly on the 

 problems already outlined and which ex- 

 perience has shown to be indispensable for 

 their solution. 



The fact is that we are not losing our- 



