197 



THE BIRDS OF BRITAIN, SYSTEMATICALLY 

 ARRANGED. 



Ornithological nomenclature is now beginning to receive that 

 attention to which its importance entitles it ; and, consequently, the 

 path of the student in this fascinating branch of science will not be 

 so frequently obstructed by those barbarous anomalies so unsparing- 

 ly created by the thoughtless, the ignorant, and the prejudiced. 

 Not only are signs of improvement becoming visible in the standard 

 Ornithological works, but also in periodicals and scrap-books, as 

 .may be observed in Jesse's Gleanings in Natural History , and other 

 publications of a similar kind. A writer in that popular periodical. 

 The Mirror J after making some very just remarks on nomenclature, 

 observes, " J take leave to suggest that the British birds should 

 have the Latin names used in that masterly work, Selby's British 

 Ornithology. For English names, I know of no work that would 

 serve as a guide. The best rule is, that each genus should have an 

 English name peculiar to itself." — Vol. xxvi., p. 69. Although I 

 am sorry to say that this rule is very frequently transgressed in the 

 Jirst volume of Selby, containing the land birds ; yet, in the second 

 volume, such errors are very rarely met with, — perhaps there are 

 not above half a dozen errors of the kind in his water birds. The 

 water birds not being so popularly known as the land birds, may, 

 possibly, be assigned as a reason why the difficulty of affixing appro- 

 priate names to them is not so great. But no obstacles should 

 deter the scientific man from aiming at scientific accuracy ; — meet 

 the difficulties boldly and they will vanish. 



In a paper, " On the Nomenclature of Birds," which appeared in 

 the last number of The Analyst, I gave a list of the land birds, and 

 promised, at a future time, to give the Grallatores and Natatores, 

 commonly called water birds. I now propose, however, to give the 

 whole of the birds of Britain together ; not only because the table 

 will thus be much more convenient for reference, but on account of 

 several errors having crept into the previous list, as Ring Dove for 

 Ring Pigeon, Anthus fuscus for Coridalla fusca, Columba turtur for 

 Peristera turtur, and some others, which will now be corrected, and 

 many additions will also be made. 



