190 Transactions. 



The use of the third name also allows the affinity to be expressed between 

 the form of a bird occurring in New Zealand and that on which the species- 

 was founded. For instance, our black-backed gull is now termed Larus 

 dominicanus antipodus, for the " type-locality," or locality at which the 

 type or first example of the species was recorded or breeds, is South America ; 

 and it becomes useful — and, indeed, desirable — to emphasize its affinity with 

 the American species, and at the same time to indicate that the bird breeds 

 in New Zealand, and differs in some slight details, perhaps, from the type. 

 So with our crested grebe : the type-locality of Podiceps cristatus is Sweden, 

 while our form differs in certain respects from it, but is not worthy of a 

 separate specific name, and the facts are indicated by the addition to the 

 specific name of a third or subspecific title, " australis." The penguin 

 (Pygoscelis papua) was originally described from the Falkland Islands, 

 whilst our bird breeds on the Macquaries, and is termed Pygoscelis papua 

 laeniata, or, in short, P. p. taeniata. And this is the case with many of our 

 sea-birds. 



Amongst the few changes in specific names, reference may be made to 

 the ugly subspecific name "matook" which has been added to Demiegretta 

 sacra; while the royal albatross from Campbell Island is no longer Dio- 

 medea regia, but D, epomophora epomophora. Our familiar Circus gouldi 

 becomes C. approximans drummondi, and the Caspian tern is now Hydro- 

 progne tschegrava oliveri. 



Throughout the " Reference List " the authors give the breeding-place 

 within our area, and when necessary the breeding-place of the type, as in 

 the case of the sea-birds. There is still a good deal of confusion as to some 

 of the sea-birds that have been recorded from our seas, which the authors 

 have been unable fully to set at rest owing to the absence of the specimens 

 on which the record was founded, some of these being in museums of the 

 Dominion, and thus inaccessible to the authors in England. This is true, 

 too, of several of the visiting Charadriidae. 



There is an interesting historical note in regard to Sparrman, whose 

 name appears after several of our species. It appears that he was a salaried 

 assistant of Forster's on Cook's second voyage ; his collection must, there- 

 fore, have been made under Forster's supervision, and probably after the 

 latter had selected what he wished for his own work. But Sparrman. 

 unfortunately, mixed up the localities of several of the birds described by 

 him : thus he attributes to some of them " Cape of Good Hope " — e.g., the 

 rifleman and South Island thrush. It therefore became important to fix 

 the localities of these types, and the authors do so by reference to " what 

 is absolutely known from Forster's descriptions and from George Forster's 

 drawings." But the retention of Sparrman's names leads in some instances, 

 as I point out below, to alterations in familiar names which are to be 

 regretted. 



Perhaps to most people the changes in the generic names will be most 

 noticed, and there is nothing that annoys naturalists, more especially 

 amateur naturalists, to whom the professional owes so much for his know- 

 ledge of animals of all groups — nothing annoys them more than alterations 

 in the names to which they have been accustomed for years, and it is dis- 

 tinctly disheartening to young naturalists ; but in most cases these changes 

 are unavoidable. Rules have been formulated for the proper method of 

 naming animals, and it is not from "pure cussedness" that alterations are 

 made. For instance, if in digging into the literature it is found that a bird 

 has at some previous date been given a name other than that by which 



