284 NOVITATES ZOOLOQICAE XXIV. 1917. 



and female of this race, to name this .subspecies, and I propose for it the 

 name : 



Perdix perdix armoricana subsp. nov. 



Type: (J ad., Riaille, Loire Inferieure, October 1900. Received, with its 

 female, from Dr. L. Bureau. /Tring Museum.) 



The other races of Perdix perdix will be discussed in one of the forthcoming 

 parts of my book on the palaearctic birds — -inshallali. 



VI. THE CORRECT NAMES OF THE "BLACK-BELLIED SANDGROUSE " 

 AND THE "COMMON FRANCOLIN." 



These two species have been called " Pterocles arenarius " and " FrancoUnus 

 francolinus " in the Catalogue of Birds, and this nomenclature has been followed 

 almost universally. In the Cat. B.. however, the twelfth edition of Linnaeus' 

 Systema Naturae was generally adopted as the starting-point of nomenclature 

 and not the tenth, which is now taken as the beginning. Therefore Linne's 

 " Tetrao orientalis," Systema Naturae, ed. x. i. p. 161, is not quoted in the 

 Cat. B. xxii., but under Pterocles arenarius we find as a synonym " Tetrao orien- 

 talis Hasselquist, Reise Paldst. p. 330, 1762," though the name was not adopted, 

 because of its date being previous to 1766. The more correct quoting would 

 have been as follows : Tetrao orientalis Linnaeus, in Hasselquist's Iter Palaestinum, 

 p. 278, 1757, as the " Reise " of 1762 is only a translation of the Swedish edition 

 of 1757, which has the title Iter Palaestinum eller Resa til Heliga Landet. It 

 was written by Linne, after Hasselquist's death, and Linne says that he added 

 the names of the animals and plants and brought the technical terms into uni- 

 formity, without altering the meaning of the author in anj' way. It is thus 

 clear that the descriptions of the species were actuallj' made by Hasselquist, 

 and this is also evident from their nature, as so many items could only have 

 been taken from fresh specimens, but the names were given by Linne. The 

 name " Tetrao orientalis,'''' though before the starting-point of nomenclature 

 in 1757, was adopted bj' Linne in Syst. Nat. ed. x. i. p. 161, and therefore 

 the Black-bellied Sandgrouse must henceforth be called Pterocles orientalis (L.), 

 as this name antedates Pallas's Tetrao arenarius by thirteen years. 



This would be quite a simple matter, but, imfortunately, the appearance 

 of the name Tetrao orientalis has also been noticed by Mr. Sergius Buturlin, 

 who misunderstood it and thus caused great confusion. 



In an article (in Russian !) in the Messager Ornith. 1910, p. 50. Mr. Buturlin 

 comes to the erroneous conclusion that Linnaeus's name refers to the Francolin, 

 and he therefore calls the latter Francolinus orientalis ! Unfortunately, Butui- 

 Un's article is full of mistakes from beginning to end, and his conclusions are 

 absolutely wrong. Let us examine his article (translated by Roston's Transla- 

 tion Bureau) and see how he came to be so mistaken. 



He begins by explaining that Linnaeus had two sections of Tetrao, one 

 " Pedibus hirsutis," the other " Pedibus nudis." Now, Tetrao orientalis has the 

 tarsus feathered in front, naked behind. It should therefore have been placed 

 into a third section, but Linnaeus — in whose Systema Naturae occur manj' in- 

 accuracies, obscurities, and errors, as Buturlin truly said — ^put it into the second 



