Benham. — Nomenclature of the Birds of New Zealand. 189 



In the case of each species and subspecies, only sufficient synonymy 

 has been given as will enable one to identify it with the bird described or 

 listed by Buller, where the full synonymy will be found. 



It will be seen from List I appended at the end of this article (p. 194) 

 that a good number of the generic names have been altered : names familiar 

 to us in New Zealand have had to give way to others. The reasons for 

 these changes are, firstly, that the authors hold very rigidly to the law of 

 priority ; secondly, they take as the starting-point for valid names the 

 tenth edition of Linne's " Systema Na.turae," published in 1758, instead of 

 the twelfth edition, of 1766, which until recently has been the foundation 

 of the binomial system of nomenclature usually followed. Again, some 

 of the work of our early ornithologists in New Zealand was " little more 

 than guesswork," especially in regard to the sea-birds, for much of the 

 literature was difficult of access here. 



The authors adopt the trinomial system, and this is the first instance 

 of its application in New Zealand to any group of animals, except that 

 Iredale has used it in his " List of the Birds of the Kermadec Islands."* 



It will be seen from a few examples that this is a very useful innovation, 

 in that it indicates at once the close affinity between the different forms or 

 subspecies of one and the same species which inhabit the different islands 

 that constitute the New Zealand area. Systematic work in all groups 

 nowadays is more and more closely correlated with geographical distribu- 

 tion than it used to be ; and, as classification is the expression of genetic 

 relationships, the utility to the evolutionist of this trinomial system be- 

 comes manifest. Thus, the tui, Prosthemadera novae-zealandiae, as we have 

 hitherto called it, occurs on both the North and South Islands (as well as 

 Stewart Island) and on the Auckland Islands. Under the new scheme each 

 of these local forms or subspecies receives its own distinctive name — the 

 South Island tui, since it was the first to be described, is Prosthemadera novae- 

 seelandiae novaeseelandiae / that on the North Island is P. novaeseelandiae 

 phoebe ; and the Auckland Island form is P. novaeseelandiae kwini.^ 



The authors, I may mention, pay very special attention to the exact 

 spelling of the generic and specific names : in whatever form they were 

 originally spelt, apart from evident lapsae calami, the rules of nomencla- 

 ture demand that that form must be retained. Thus Sparrman wrote 

 " novaezelandiae " ; Gmelin used the form " novaeseelandiae " ; while 

 Quoy and Gaimard preferred " novae-zealandiae." Some years ago our 

 naturalists attempted to adopt some uniform spelling for this word, but 

 the law of priority does not allow this uniformity. 



As with the tui, so with the bell-bird, of which four subspecies are now 

 recognized : and the same means are employed for distinguishing the local 

 forms of kiwis, kingfishers, fantails, and other birds of the North and South 

 Islands. In most cases the distinction was either not made formerly, or 

 the two or more forms were regarded as so many distinct species. These 

 are now recognizable as merely subspecies of one and the same species, 

 and their relationship is thus better appreciated. This comes out very 

 strikingly in the case of our shags, as may be seen by examining List II 

 appended (pp. 195-202). in which the breeding-place of each subspecies 

 is given. 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 45, 1913, p. 78. 



f The choice of the names for these two subspecies is perhaps not as suitable as 

 would have been the case had they been bestowed by a naturalist in this country ; 

 but, after all. names arc only labels, and need not have any meaning. 



