1896.] Progress in American Ornithology. 357 



panded and delicate gametophyte. When the sporophyte had 

 largely assumed this function of the gametophyte, and by the 

 development of absorbing organs in the soil was enabled to 

 live an independent existence, it became gradually established, 

 as conditions changed, in situations where the gametophyte 

 could not exist. It has thus become the dominating vegetative 

 feature of most land areas, while the gametophyte in these 

 higher forms, has become an organ entirely dependent upon 

 the sporophyte for nourishment, or has been developed into an 

 organ to serve a secondary purpose in the nourishment of the 

 sporophytic embryo. 



PROGRESS IN AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



By R. W. Shufeldt, M. D. 



What I have to say here in reference to the progress in 

 American ornithology for the past nine or ten years is prompted 

 by the recent appearance of the second edition of The A. O. U. 

 Check-List of North American Birds. Most naturalists are 

 familiar with the first edition of this work, it having been pub- 

 lished in 1886. It was officially promulgated by the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union, and zoologists the world over have 

 carefully considered " The Code of Nomenclature " that formed 

 a part of the volume. Moreover, it contained a List of North 

 American Birds which had been prepared according to the 

 aforesaid Code of Rules, and classified in accordance with the 

 views of the majority of the committee appointed by the Union 

 to prepare it. In so far as the orders and families of this classi- 

 fication were concerned, the arrangement could be appreciated 

 at a glance by reference to the Table of Contents of the book, 

 and, as for the List itself, it not only was intended to represent 

 the nomenclature of the Birds, but " a classification as well" 

 (p. 15). At the close of the volume was presented a " Hypo- 

 thetical List " to which had been referred those species and 

 subspecies the zoological status of which could not be satis- 

 factorily determined ; and following this was a list of the fossil 

 species of North American birds. 



As the years passed by a second edition of this book was 



