ii PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
bers untouched in the body of the text, and then adjusts them to the new angle 
of vision in the Appendix, in parallel columns. Thus the new “Key” turns 
either way; or, to vary the metaphor, the renovated structure stands Janus- 
faced, looking both ways at once— backward upon its old self, of which it 
has no cause to be ashamed ; forward upon another self, of which it has much 
reason to be proud. 
The train of incidents which resulted in what may be called a nomenclatural 
explosion was fired at the founding of the American Ornithologists’ Union at 
New York, in September, 1883. As one of three persons who brought that 
happy episode upon an unsuspecting bird-world, which nevertheless greeted their 
stroke with acclamation, the author must plead a modesty act in bar of trial of 
his pen on that particular count. But as the honor was his of presiding over 
the first Congress of the Union, whilst the ideas of its founders were shapen in- 
to a permanent and world-wide organization, so also it fell to his lot to appoint 
several committees for the despatch of business the Union at once took in hand; 
and of one of these-he has to speak here. 
This particular wheel within other wheels turned upon a resolution of the 
Union “that the Chairman appoint a committee of five, including himself, to 
whom shall be referred the question of a revision of the Classification and 
Nomenclature of the Birds of North America.” Having accepted the situation, 
the author held with his esteemed colleagues many sessions of the Committee in 
Washington and New York, and in April, 1885, offered to the Union the result 
of much joint labor. The report of the Committee being accepted, it was ordered 
to be printed, and it appeared in 1886 in an octavo volume of 400 pages, 
entitled “The Code of Nomenclature and Check-list of North American Birds, 
adopted by the American Ornithologists’ Union,” etc. 
The objects which we kept steadily in view were: first, to establish certain 
sound principles or canons of nomenclature applicable to zodlogy at large.as 
well as to ornithology: and, secondly, to apply these rules consistently and 
effectually to the naming of North American birds. Others must be left to 
judge how well or ill these purposes may have been accomplished, but the 
simple fact is that no sooner had the book appeared than it became the standard 
and indeed the only recognized Nomenclator in American Ornithology. That 
which the Committee had stamped with the seal of the Union became the 
current coin of the realm, other than which our venerable fowl, The Auk, should 
know none. 
