344 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 91 



The degree of my certainty regarclins; questionable identifications 

 in tlie papers I reviewed in this : I submitted the original statements 

 of the authors reviewed, and my criticisms to my colleagues in eco- 

 nomic ornithology and to various entomologists in Washington, and 

 have repeated this process exhibiting Professor Stephens' remarks. 

 Without exception these specialists have l>een of the opinion that 

 positive identifications could not have been made under the condi- 

 tions described for the cases mentioned in my review. 



In conclusion I may say that my reviews in the Auli; are initialled 

 because that is the invariable custom in that .iournal. and not be- 

 cause of any desire for anonymity. 



"'. L. ]\IcAtee. 



SCIE^'CE, ORNITHOLOGY. AND THE WAR. 



Editor of The Wilson Bulletin : 



While the daily newspapers, journals, and magazines of every de- 

 scription, as well as other prints — to say no,t a word of new books 

 on the subject — teem with accounts of how the great conflict in 

 Europe is affecting various interests and industries in this country, 

 there is Iiardly a paragraph ever published which has anything to 

 say of tlie influence .which this terrilde international iml)roglio is 

 exerting upon the various sciences, scientific institutions, literature, 

 and upon scientific researchers of every department in nearly all 

 parts of the world. 



In so far as Europe is concerned, we hear a great deal in re- 

 gard to how this stupendous struggle has crushed many trade in- 

 terests ; the enormous number of casualties that has thus far been 

 the result of it; the diseases it has spread; the mentnl and physical 

 defects which will result from it upon the offspring of generations 

 of people to come. and. indeed, vast and far-reaching effects in many 

 other directions too numerous to mention. All this is being inces- 

 santly and voluminously brought before us in tlie afoi'esaid man- 

 ner, Avith rarely a word as to how science has thus far fared in 

 it all. 



The dollar and the base-ball being the two chief concerns in this 

 country demanding the greatest amount of attention and cultiva- 

 tion — at least on the part of nine-tenths of the total jiopulation — 

 it becomes a matter of no surprise that between these two en- 

 grossing piu'suits the public cares not a rap for the fact that, since 

 the first week in August. inU, until the end of January. 1015, there 

 had not been received at the libraiy of the T^^nited States National 

 Museum, and i)robably at the liliraries of other institutions of the 

 kind in this couTitry. a single (ierman or French scientific journal 



