256 
JOUKNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
rapidity and active research was instituted in a number of problems, 
in all of which Doctor Allen took a leading part. The work of the 
committee of the Ornithologists’ Union on the conservation of bird 
life grew into such importance that it resulted in the birth of the National 
Association of Audubon Societies, of which Doctor Allen was one 
of the five organizers and in which he was an active director to 
the end. Among the other conservation work in which he took a promi- 
nent part was the formulation of the American Ornithologists’ Union 
model bird law, which has been the foundation of much of the subse- 
quent bird and game legislation in this country. This has been of incal- 
culable value in conserving many forms of our wild life from extermina- 
tion and was one of the elements leading to a practical activity in the 
conservation of wild life in the United States which is equaled nowhere 
else in the world. 
Another committee of the Ornithologists’ Union in which Doctor 
Allen took a part, that on the distribution and migration of North 
American birds, also outgrew the committee stage and became a division 
of the Department of Agriculture, later developing under the leader- 
ship of Dr. C. Hart Merriam into the Bureau of Biological Survey. 
At the time the American Ornithologists’ Union was organized zoologi- 
cal nomenclature was in a chaotic condition, which greatly increased 
the difficulties of scientific research. A committee on nomenclature 
was organized in which Doctor Allen’s knowledge, clearness of vision 
and powers of logical reasoning made him a leading figure. This com- 
mittee prepared the American Ornithologists’ Union code of zoological 
nomenclature, which later became the basis of an international code, 
thus exerting world- wide influence on this phase of scientific research. 
The early years of Doctor Allen’s career were passed at what was 
then termed the Agassiz Museum but is now known as the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge. In 1885 he became curator of 
birds and mammals in the American Museum of Natural History, where 
he had greater opportunities and his influence in the development of 
scientific research increased. For many years his attention had been 
devoted mainly to the study of birds, but during the last half of his 
life most of his time was given to mammals, in which he did notable 
work and held the same leadership that he had attained in ornithology. 
At the time he came to the American Museum this new institution 
had practically no scientific study collections. Throughout the rest 
of his life he promoted many scientific expeditions to all parts of the 
world, and in addition encouraged the purchase of material, until the 
