89 [ Vol. xl. 
satisfactorily carried on in one or two of our great museums, 
where large series from all parts of the world were available 
for comparison. It was an unfortunate weakness that the 
work of nomenclature should be restricted to those, not 
necessarily field-workers themselves, who profited by the 
actual collecior’s labours. Asa result, we found innumerable 
races named after the members of museum staffs—neither 
descriptive nor geographically useful, and conveying nothing 
to the student of the future. All the honours, such as they 
were, fell to the describer, and it was not unnatural that in 
consequence we found local races described in many cases 
on somewhat trivial and insufficient grounds. But, apart 
from this blot, the impetus given to the study of ornithology 
was so great that its value could hardly be over-estimated, 
especially with regard to migration. The occurrence of a 
dark-breasted Barn-Owl in December in England, or a grey- 
backed Jay in Norfolk, would have been quite meaningless 
to a British ornithologist 60 or 70 years ago; whether a 
Nutcracker had a thin or thick bill merely led to wild 
suggestions that these characters were sexual. To us these 
occurrences were fraught with meaning, and it was due to 
the labours of those who had studied the question that this 
gate of knowledge had been opened to us. 
Mr. Bonnote stated that it was necessary to be very clear 
as to what was meant by a subspecies. In his opinion, it 
was a form of a species that differed from the same species 
in another locality owing to its environment, e.g., its geo- 
graphical position. With regard to birds it was therefore 
essential that no new subspecies should be described except 
from its breeding-quarters, and only then if a fairly large 
and level series had been obtained. ‘Trinomials should be 
strictly limited in their application to geographical races, 
and should never be used for aberrations or varieties. Mr. 
Stuart Baker had hinted that in true subspecies one form 
should grade into another and that therefore intermediates 
would be found ; but Mr. Bonhote pointed out that there 
were many cases, such as islands and also desert or mountain 
