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?54 THE CONDOR ] VOL. VIII THE. CONDOB, An Illustrated Magazine of Western Ornithology Published Bi=Monthly by the Cooper Ornitholo#i- al Club of Californi? JOSEPH GRINNELL. Editor. P?s?den? H. T. CLIFTON. Business Manager. Bog 404. Pasadena WILLIAM L. FINLEY } Associate Editors P,.OBT. E. SNODGP,.ASS Pasadena, California: Published Nov. 20, 1906 5UISSCI?IPTION RATES One Dollar per Year in the Ut?ited States, anada, Mexico, a?d U.?. Colorgies, payable in advance. Twenty Cents the ?ingle copy. One Dollar and ? Ou?rter per Year in all other countries in the I?ternatio?al Postal Union. Claims for missing or imperfect numbers should be made within lhirty days of date of issue. Subscriptlons should be sent to tt?e Business Manager. M?nuscripts and Egchan?les should be sent to the Editor. Adverllsinsg R?ttes on application. EDITORIALS BETTER In view of the fact that there VERNACULAR is i? preparation a new A. O. U. NAMES Checklist of North American Birds, and that this will un- doubtedly be the generally accepted authority in matters of nomenclature for the next decade or more, a discussion of certain features ismore appropriately in order in advance than later. The A. O. U. Committee on Nomenclature an- nounces itself as open to suggestions and recommendations from anyone anywhere, and these will be given due consideration before final action is taken. We have not been alone in our advocacy of better co?n?ton or vernacular nantes for our birds than many of those in use in .the old List; and this is the subject we wish ?co bring up here. Common names should'be chosen from the standpoint of popular convenience as well as more or less of technical propriety. The useful- ness of the A. O. U. Checklist would in our minds be decidedly augmented by the follow- ing modifications and innovations. Drop possessives; for instance, Audubon Warbler instead of "Audubon's" Warbler. The merits of this usage have already been dis- cussed, and to our minds thoroly demonstrated by its increasing employment. Use a nominative form of geographical name instead of an adjectival; for example, Texas Nighthawk instead of "Texan" Nighthawk, California Woodpecker instead of" Californ tan" Woodpecker. The old List is inconsistent in this respect. Insert some qualifying term before lhe name of each bird whidh has two or more representa- tive races; for example, we have in the old List, "Bluebird," Western Bluebird, Azure Bluebird, etc. But all are bluebirds, and the eastern species should be called, say, Eastern Bluebird. So also there should be an Eastern Wood Pewee instead of "Wood Pewee" alone, and so on with a great number of cases. Change "Partridge" to Quail wherever the former name is used in the old List. We, here in California, never hear of Valley "Partridges" ! They are always Valley Quail; and the same with the other species. For similar reasons the term "House Finch" should be replaced by the much more prefer- able Li?net; the "House Finch" of the old List would become Common Linnet; the San Clemente "House Finch" would De known as the San Clemente Linnet, etc. We can see no excuse whatever for retaining "House Finch"; 99 persons out of every xoo who are familiar with Linnets never heard of "House Finches"! For similar reasons the "American Coot" is far better known as the Mudhen; the latter name should be adopted. "Leucosticte" should become Rosy Finch, just as it used to be called in earlier literature, this for the sakeof the amateur (possibly others) who doesn't know Greek! "St." or "Saint" Lucas should be replaced by San Lucas wherever this geographic name is used; for instance, San Lucas Cardinal. Both "St. Lucas" and "Saint Lucas" are hybrid names and incorrect. Besides the above, for varying reasons we think an improvement would be accomplished by making the following substitutions: Moun- tain Partridge of the old List should be changed to Painted Quail; Plumed Partridge to Moun- ttan Qtmil; California Vulture to California Condor; Burrowing Owl to Ground Owl; Ar- kansas Kingbird to Western Kingbird; Santa Crnz Jay to Santa Cruz Island Jay; Large-billed Sparrow to Large-billed Marsh Sparrow: Gam- bel's Sparrow to Nuttall Sparrow; Thurber's Junco to Sierra Junco; Forbush's Sparrow to Northwestern Lincoln Sparrow; Louisiana Tan- ager to Western Tanager; Grinnell's Vater- Thrush to Alaska Waterthrush; Macgillivray's Warbler to Tolmie Warbler; Bush-Tit to Pacific Bushtit; Chestnut-backed Chickadee to Chest- nut-sided Chickadee; California Chickadee to Marin Chickadee; Barlow's Chickadee to Santa Cruz Chickadee. Besides the above specified cases there are a g. ood many more which warrant reconsidera- t&on. We would urge the desirability of em- ploying the very best vernacular names that can be selected. This selection is not an easy task, and the responsibility devolves upon the A. O. U. Comn?itteeon Nomenclature. At best we can't expect them to please everyone. Yet we hanker after names that we cau use in our school work and popular literature without the necessity of explaining why we have to use them wro?ly/ If anyone has serious objections to the above proposed changes, or if he has further suggestions to make, now is the time to speak; and TI-IE CONDOR is a good medium for the