Views of Zoological Nomenclature. 205 



I maintain that Mr, Ogilby has himself set the rules of clas- 

 sical nomenclature at nought. I will not here enlarge upon 

 the advantages of adopting an uniform termination for groups 

 of equivalent value. In my humble opinion, this uniformity 

 has far greater merits than that of being "merely a matter of 

 convenience," as Mr. Ogilby admits it to be. I will take Mr. 

 Ogilby's own example ; and I trust I shall be able to shew 

 that even here, instead of Mr. Strickland's suggestions being 

 "a glaring example of the mischief arising from the inconsi- 

 derate and indiscriminate application of a purely arbitrary 

 rule," Mr. Ogilby himself has acted in defiance of his cherish- 

 ed "ancient classical " lore. First ; Mr. Ogilby will not, I 

 presume, quarrel with the application of the classical patro- 

 nymic termination, ida ovada,to designate a tribe of animals 

 instead of a race of men. If this be admitted, — and I can 

 bring forward the authority of zoologists, whose classical at- 

 tainments nobody ever thought of doubting, in its support, — 

 the application of the term Simiada or Simiida to the old Si- 

 mla, — the number of which has greatly increased as a tribe 

 of species, since the days when the name was first applied, — is 

 not unclassical. Secondly ; the application of the classical pa- 

 tronymic name, Simiada, as used by M. Ogilby for the South 

 American Quadrumana, must be unclassical, because the 

 group so named does not include the Simla. Thirdly ; the 

 term Simiada, as employed by Mr. Ogilby, dees not, unless 

 a person were actually informed thereof, give any idea of a 

 relation of the animals included therein, (not being Simia), 

 to the true Simia. To express this analogical relation, ano- 

 ther termination ought classically to have been added to the 

 name of the genus with which the resemblance is supposed 

 to exist. Hitherto oides, added to a Greek word, or formis 

 ox formes to a Latin one, have been employed to indicate the 

 relation suggested by Mr. Ogilby. Why should he therefore 

 object to use these terminations, and unclassically adopt ano- 

 ther, which has been classically used in a different and legiti- 

 mate acceptation by so many naturalists ? Fourthly ; Cebus, 

 being considered as the typical genus of the South American 

 anthropomorphous Quadrumana, it is classically correct to 

 give to the tribe of animals which it represents, the family pa- 

 tronymic name of Cebida. 



