Ma3% 1907 



COMMUNICATIONS 



95 



We are indebted to Mr. Robert B. Rockwell, 

 of Denver, for the following information in 

 regard to the new scientific society lately 

 formed in Colorado. 



On December 18, 1906, a number of the 

 scientific workers of Colorado met at Denver 

 and organized the Colorado Biological Society, 

 which has been incorporated under the laws of 

 the State of Colorado. 



The Charter Membership consists of men 

 specializing in Botany, Mammalogy, Ornithol- 

 ogy and Entomology and altho few in num- 

 bers at present, the society will endeavor to 

 secure as members all of the scientific workers 

 of Colorado and adjoining states. 



The policy of the new organization will be to 

 foster and encourage practical field work, with 

 ''results'' as the watchword. Especial atten- 

 tion will be paid to the collection and preser- 

 vation of existing biological information rela- 

 tive to Colorado, and investigation along all 

 lines of scientific biological work which have 

 heretofore been more or less neglected. 



There has been a growing demand for an 

 organization in the vState which would tend to 

 bring scientific students thruout the Rocky 

 Mountain region into closer touch with each 

 other and enable all to work more or less in 

 unison; and it is hoped that the new Society 

 will not onl}' furnish the means to this end 

 but that it will go further and perform the 

 same function for Colorado that the Cooper 

 Club has for California. 



The Society has accepted an invitation to 

 affiliate with the Colorado Museum of Natural 

 Histor}^ located at Denver, which gives it the 

 necessary backing and support so necessary to 

 a young organization of this kind; thru this 

 combination it is expected that a great deal of 

 work of scientific and practical value will be 

 accomplished. 



The charter membership consists of Messrs. 

 Ellsworth Bethel, Victor H. Borcherdt, Geo. 

 L. Cannon, Fred M. Dille, J. Clarence Hersey, 

 L,. J. Hersey, and Robert B. Rockwell, all of 

 Denver, W. L. Burnett of Ft. Collins, e;. R. 

 Warren of Colorado Springs, and W. D. Hol- 

 lister of Albuquerque, N. M. 



All coinmunications to the Society should be 

 addressed to Fred M. Dille, Corresponding 

 Secretary, 307 Continental Bldg., Denver, 

 Colorado. 



COMMUNICATIONS 



In Rkgard To THE Mooti<;d Points 



Editor The Condor: 



If I may be pardoned in exceeding the 

 "postal card" limit, 1 should like to touch at 

 length on two of the mooted points; for one 

 cannot express either reason or emotion in a 

 single written "Yes" or "No". 



(i) Unquestionably those who prefer the 

 metric system are justified by current usage 

 in advanced scientific circles, and they have 

 the future with them. But, as certainly, 

 measurements expressed in the metric system 

 are unintelligible to most of us. They may be 

 laboriouslypuzzled out, but they are not quickly 

 sensed, as are measurements in inches and 

 hundredths. The case is quite hopeless for 

 those of us who do not happen to have enjoyed 

 the early advantages of drill in the metric sys- 

 tem. For myself I think I could derive the 

 equation for the Conchoid of Nicomedes with 

 passable credit; but if you told me that an egg 

 was 26.23 ™ni long, I should have to study to 

 know whether you had a California Condor's 

 or an Anna Hummingbird's. Please, Mr. Editor, 

 be patient with those of us who, altho only 

 half way across the stage, are far too busy to go 

 back and begin over again. 



(2) Reformed spelling? Yes; altho I do 

 not follow the President thru thick and thin. 

 'Jhe substitution of t for ed, as in blusht and 

 k^st, is pedantic and, quite evidently, unpopu- 

 lar. 



(3) For the capitalization of vernacular 

 names, a hearty Yes! And for weightier 

 reasons than those of prominence and eye ease, 

 already recited. 



The accepted vernacular names of American 

 ornithology have acquired greater stability than 

 the vaunted Latin. The Uatin name of the 

 Evening Grosbeak has been changed twice 

 within the last decade; but no one has thought 

 of changing the vernacular as whimsical as it is. 

 The Western Winter Wren has been Troglo- 

 dytes sp., Anorthura sp., and Olbiorchihis sp., 

 within recent memory, but the note-book short- 

 hand is still "W. \V. W." and always will be, 

 whatever mire of Uatinity "■larium et niuta- 

 bile'" they try to stick it in. Ergo the English 

 name in fact deserves as much consideration at 

 the hands of an editor who would be under- 

 stood as the scientific name. 



But more important still is the fact that the 

 name of a species, whether English or Uatin, 

 is a proper name. The basis of distinction be- 

 tween named birds is not individual but specific. 

 We do not call an Audubon Warbler "Mary" 

 to distinguish it from other individuals, but our 

 common aim and interest is to declare it 

 propre, or peculiar, as compared with birds of 

 other species, as Myrtle Warbler, Palm War- 

 bler, etc. 



This is neither falsification of grammar nor 

 hair-splitting. Moreover, we require capitali- 

 zation of species in the interest of accuracy. If 

 I speak of an evening grosbeak, 1 may refer to 

 a specimen of Habia—ox is it Zamelodia now? — 

 Zamelodia melayiocephala, seen at evening; 

 but there is no uncertainty whatever if I speak 

 of an Evening Grosbeak. 



