18 THE CONDOR 
for several of the species, I am at a loss to know which author to follow. If a 
committee that has a reputation for good judgment and fairness passes on the 
ease, I will follow its ruling. 
The American Ornithologists’ Union Committee rulings do not always 
agree with my ideas, but were I writing on United States birds I would follow 
the American Check-list. / 
The Union has furnished an immense stimulus to the development of orn- 
ithology in the United States and has been a drag on wild and unreasoning pub- 
heation. It does not seem impossible that an international union or committee 
could exert a similarly desirable influence on systematic ornithology in all 
countries. 
Another salutary effect of an international list would be to show local 
students that some of the genera with which they are familiar contain related 
species in neighboring countries. 
In the Manual of North American Birds and in the Birds of North and 
Middle America, Ridgway includes some species on the above basis; this should 
he considered a highly commendable feature of this author’s remarkably thor- 
ough work. The preparation of the manuscript for such books involves an im- 
mense amount of study of related species, and. Mr. Ridgway fully realizes that 
the study of birds should inelude all birds, not only a lot of species selected be- 
cause of geographic or political divisions. Although, because of mechanical 
considerations, the species treated in one work must be limited in some way, 
every opportunity should be given the beginner to realize so far as he can the 
relation of his local species, genera, and families to those of the world at large. 
Few of us could afford to possess the twenty-seven volumes of the Catalogue 
of Birds, even were none of them out of print or out of date; but a useful 
check list of the birds of the world could be sold at a price within the reach 
of many students. Such a work would go far to dispel the provincialism of 
which I complain and would bring about a better understanding and a greater 
spirit of codperation among the ornithologists of the world. 
It is easy to describe the kind of list that one would wish to see published, 
but its preparation involves an immense amount of labor by the men who are 
generous enough to undertake it. 
Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I., October 14, 1920. 
Vol. XXIII 
