

{Authors are responsible for no?nenclature used.) Z^p/O <\<P*> 



LIBRA RYjso! 



5 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 9.] 1912 [September 



THE NEW NOMENCLATURE OF BRITISH BIRDS. 1 



ALTHOUGH not mentioned on the title-page of the Hand- 

 List, yet its chief feature is the changes of nomenclature it 

 introduces and invites naturalists, on the plea of uniformity, 

 to accept in place of current names, many of which are 

 time-honoured in the history of British and European 

 ornithology. 



Feeling regarding these changes runs high in this country, 

 and naturally so, since British zoologists were the first to 

 advocate uniformity in the nomenclature of their science, 

 though one would imagine from the appeal and statements 

 made that this important desideratum had received little 

 or no consideration in this country. 



Seventy years ago the British Association appointed a 

 committee " to consider of the rules by which the nomenclature 

 of zoology may be established on a uniform and permanent basis." 

 This committee consisted of Charles Darwin, Prof. Henslow, 

 Rev. L. Jenyns, John Phillips, Sir John Richardson, 

 W. Ogilby, Prof. J. O. Westwood, W. Yarrell, Sir Richard 

 Owen, J. W. Broderip, W. E. Shuckard, G. R. Waterhouse, 

 and H. E. Strickland (secretary), and presented its report 



1 A Ha?id- List of British Birds, with an Account of the Distribution 

 of each Species in the British Isles and Abroad, by Ernst Hartert, 

 F. C. R. Jourdain, N. F. Ticehurst, and H. F. Witherby. London : 

 Witherby & Co. 7s. 6d. net. 



9 2 B 



