872 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 574. 



of men in scientific work in case an attempt 

 were made to enforce the -rule. He believed, 

 however, that the rule would be ignored by 

 the majority of workers. Regarding the prin- 

 ciple of tautonomy, he expressed himself not 

 only as not opposed to it but as highly in favor 

 of it, and he himself has decided to purposely 

 introduce tautonimic names whenever the 

 occasion presents itself. By use of tautonomy, 

 the type species of a genus is shown in its 

 name; without tautonomy, it is necessary to 

 refer to the literature in order to recall the 

 type species. 



He did not believe it possible to enforce the 

 rule concerning the list of excepted names. 

 In fact, this rule did not seem to mean very 

 much to him, as the congress had failed to 

 determine the types for the names which were 

 excepted and had apparently failed to provide 

 for cases in which the genera in question 

 might be defined in the future. 



He recognized the delicacy of the situation 

 which now faces the American botanists, but 

 it seemed to him that the botanical code con- 

 tained so many subjective elements that it 

 was impossible for this code to expect to have 

 a very long life. It has been the history of 

 nomenclature since the time of Linnaeus that 

 rules based on subjective ideas were short- 

 lived. A rule in nomenclature must be ob- 

 jective if we expect it to be accepted generally 

 and if we expect it to be permanent. Dis- 

 cussion followed by Dr. Gill. 



The last paper on the program was by Dr. 

 Hugh M. Smith on the ' Sargassum Fish,' a 

 tropical species of the southern Atlantic occa- 

 sionally brought by winds and currents to 

 more northern shores. A large number of the 

 fish were taken at Woods Holl and vicinity. 

 The eggs from these prove to be entirely dif- 

 ferent from those described by Agassiz and 

 long supposed to have belonged to the sargas- 

 sum fish. Specimens of the fish were shown 

 and a beautiful painting of it by C. R. Knight, 

 showing its wonderful protective coloration. 

 The paper was discussed by Dr. Gill. 



Vernon Bailey, 

 Recording Secretary, pro tern. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 ONTOGENETIC SPECIES AND OTHER SPECIES. 



Referring to the admirable article in Sci- 

 ence (November 24, 1905, p. 661) on 'The 

 Evolution of Species through Climatic Condi- 

 tions,' by Dr. J. A. Allen, I may once more 

 gratefully recognize my own especial indebt- 

 edness to Dr. Allen's pioneer investigations of 

 thirty years ago in this particular direction. 

 These studies have been epoch-making in the 

 history of ornithology. 



It remains, however, to be determined 

 whether these environmental forms — these 

 species and subspecies produced by the direct 

 influence of heat, cold, humidity and aridity 

 — are ' ontogenetic species ' (a term origi- 

 nating, so far as I know, with Professor V. L. 

 Kellogg) or whether they have a real exist- 

 ence outside the lifetime of the individuals 

 actually composing the group or species. We 

 do not know which of the traits induced 

 by direct section of the environment, if any, 

 are actually hereditary and which are not. 

 If we find that the dusky woodpeckers of 

 Vancouver Island retain this shade when 

 reared in Arizona, then humidity would be 

 a real factor in the formation of species. 

 If such birds, transferred in the egg to a 

 new region should develop in the fashion of 

 the local race of this region, and not like 

 their own parents, then the duskiness is not 

 a true specific or subspecific character. The 

 real character of the species would be found 

 in the tendency to develop dark plumage in 

 humid surroundings and pale feathers under 

 other conditions. In such case humidity 

 would be merely a factor modifying individ- 

 ual development but not connected with the 

 origin of species. 



It may be that these questions have been 

 already solved by experiment on birds, but if 

 so, the experiments have escaped my atten- 

 tion. Eggs of the woodpeckers, chickadees 

 and other birds showing dusky phases should 

 be hatched in the arid plains. The red-shafted 

 flicker of California should be bred in New 

 England, and the permanence of the differ- 

 ence between large birds of northern range 

 and their smaller southern homologues should 

 be tested. 



