28 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. VII 
Myiarchus m. magister. Arizona Crested Flycatcher. On the cactus covered 
hill north of our camp we found this species breeding quite abundantly, though 
none were seen out on the flat mesa; and had we remained in our camp in the 
mesquites, scarcely five hundred yards distant from the hill, I doubt if we would 
have known there were any of the birds around, so closely did they stick to their 
barren hillside. The birds were exceedingly noisy and quarrelsome, but very 
wary and hard to get a shot at, sitting at a safe distance when their nest was 
robbed, and uttering continually their loud, harsh call. Some eight or ten nests 
were examined, all very much alike. The cavities were all from fifteen to twenty- 
five feet from the ground, and I doubt that we found any nests more than half 
way up the hill. Most of the species occupying the cactuses were found nearer the 
base than the summit of the hill. The nests were all very much alike, being com- 
posed mainly of hair taken from dead horses and cattle, and smelling vilely. Usu- 
ally there were pieces of snake skin in the nests, and occasionally a mummified owl 
or woodpecker underneath. The number of eggs in a set ranged from three to five. 
Myiarchus cinerascens. Ash-throated Flycatcher. Breeds fairly abundantly 
in the mesquites. I have also found it nesting in the giant cactus, but not in 
any numbers. 
Empidonax trailli. Traill Flycatcher. Seen and heard in the mesquites 
along the river. 
Pyrocephalus r. mexicanus. Vermilion Flycatcher. A common and conspic- 
uous species, breeding everywhere in the mesquites. 
( To be concluded .) 
A New Code of Nomenclature 
D URING the latter part of the fall semester of 1904, President Jordan of .Stanford Univer- 
sity delivered a series of lectures on nomenclature before the faculty and graduate 
students of the biological departments. After an introductory talk on the history of 
nomenclature, he devoted the remaining lectures to a discussion of the principles and 
canons of the A. O. U. Code. O11 several important points Dr. Jordan took issue with these. It 
is fortunate for students in general that Dr. Jordan’s wide practical experience with knotty 
problems in nomenclature is to be embodied in a new code, which will shortly appear under the 
joint authorship of Doctors J ordan, Evermann, and Gilbert. Dr. Jordan has kindly allowed me to 
make extracts from the manuscript, in advance of the regular publication. 
There are thirty canons in the new code, several of the A. O. U. canons having in many 
cases been condensed into one. These are followed at the end by short notes. Most of the 
canons of the A. O. U. code are now very generally accepted and need no explanation. I have 
made extracts only where the new code differs materially from that of the A. O. U. The paper is 
entitled “Nomenclature in Ichthyology. A Provisional Code Based on the Code of 
the American Ornithologists’ Union.” 
“The recent preparation of numerous papers in systematic ichthyology has necessitated the 
reconsideration of many problems of zoological nomenclature, and as some of these are not cov- 
ered by any canon in any recognized code, and again, as certain canons in the best considered of 
the various codes of nomenclature, that of the American Ornithologists’ Union, are not available 
in the study of fishes, we have ventured to draw up a code for our own use in ichthyology. 
“The value of a code depends not on the authority behind it, but solely 011 its simplicity, use- 
fulness, and naturalness. Formal agreements among groups of authors are always marked by 
compromises in which fitness and exactness are more or less sacrificed in the interest of unanim- 
ity of action. These compromises one and all are discarded in the progress of science. 
“The present statement represents therefore solely the present practice of the present authors. 
No one else is bound by it, and they will not be bound in the future in any case in which they 
find reason to believe that their present views are faulty. 
“The different canons in this code are based on those composing the code of the American 
