11^ CORRESPOMDENCB. 



called ; and to obviate the confusion thus occasioned, the Latin 

 name is called into requisition. 



Carlo Cyffin then proceeds to remark — " Frequent changes in the 

 nomenclature of natural productions are highly to be deprecated.** 

 True, and in order to do away with change, I propose to adopt a 

 system of nomenclature built on a sure basis. First inquire what 

 the true principles of nomenclature are, and then act ujwn them. 



Your correspondent asks why so many generic names are given 

 in the Owl family (Strigidcs). I answer, — simply because sob 

 many genera exist. The ten species of that family found in Bi-f- 

 tain* belong to seven genera,, therefore there are seven generic 

 names given, in order that when any one of them is mentioned, the- 

 genus to which it belongs may at once be known. It seems, how- 

 ever, that your correspondent objects to so many generic names, on 

 the score af the trouble requisite to learn them all. He proposes 

 that Orvl should be the Familif name. Let us examine this proposal. 

 It has been well remarked that " if a principle is good, its advan- 

 tages will become the more apparent, the more they are followed 

 out into detaiL This is an axiom."^ Thus, suppose we try how the 

 principle now under consideration is calculated to abi-idge our labour,^ 

 and facilitate our research. In the Warbler family ( Sihjiadoe }, 

 for instance, are twenty-one British genera ; now suppose, accord- 

 ing to the plan of C. C, we abolish ail these distinctions, and lump 

 tlie whole of these genera under the single appellation Warbler I 

 Instead of calling the Parus cceruleus Blue Tit, we must say Blue 

 Warbler; the Pied Wagtail must be named the Pied Warbler; the 

 Whin Chat, the Whia Warbler ; and so on throughout L The 

 Swans fCignus) are in the Duck family (Anatidse) ; instead, 

 therefore, of speaking of the Whistling Swan, we must call the spe- 

 cies Whistling Duck, and the Redbreasted Merganser must be called- 

 Redbreasted Duck. 



Your correspondent next adverts to my having applied the name 

 Snowflake to a genus of the Owl family; and the principal objec- 

 tion seems to be, that that name has already been applied to another 

 genus, namely, Plectrofanes. I am aware that the Plectrqfajies: 

 nivalis is, in some parts, known by the name Snowflake, and it is 

 given, in some of the books, as a provincial name of that bird. 



• In the list at p. 26, there are not eleven of the Owl family enumerated 

 (as C C. represents), but nine : another has, however, since been discovered 

 — the Funereal Nightling f Nocttta funereal Jenyns). The other two are the 

 Brown Nightling ( Noctua dasipusy W.), and the Passerine Nightling- TiVoc* 

 tua pctsserina^ Selby). 



