196 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



as appalling. On instituting a comparison between the 

 nomenclature here used and that of the last edition of 

 Saunders' List (1907), we find that out of the 417 species 

 there recognised as members of the British avifauna no 

 less than 226 have to be changed : in other words, over 54 

 per cent, of the current names should no longer stand. 



The nomenclature of the Hand-List is in accordance 

 with the rules of the International Committee framed 

 in 1905. Many of the changes are made on trivial grounds, 

 while others show a total disregard for the serious confusion 

 their acceptance would entail. We give the following instances 

 as examples : — 



In the tenth edition of his Systenia, Linnaeus described 

 on page 125 a duck under the name of Anas platyrliynclws, 

 which is considered by Lonnberg to be the female of 

 the Wild Duck, and is accepted by the authors of the 

 Hand-List. On page 127 Linnaeus described the male 

 Wild Duck as Anas boschas. The International rules 

 demand that the name platyrJiyncha must be adopted. 

 Why? — because this name appears two pages earlier in 

 the volume than boschas! This is not priority, for both 

 names were published simultaneously. To dismiss the latter 

 name, which has been all but exclusively in use for over 

 150 years, on such flimsy and arbitrary grounds, is in 

 our opinion opposed to common sense. On the other hand, 

 the name platyrliynclia has never hitherto been associated 

 with the Wild Duck. But this is not all : Linnaeus in 

 his twelfth edition tells us that his Anas platyrliynclios is the 

 female of the Shoveler. He was mistaken in describing the 

 speculum as purple, but his description applies to both sexes. 



Several names after long years of association with certain 

 species have been transferred to others. The name 

 7/iusicus, after being in use since 1766, and applied thousands 

 of times to the Song Thrush in the ornithological literature 

 of all countries, is transferred to the Redwing {Turdus iliacus), 

 because Linnaeus in inadvertence used this name for the latter 

 bird in 1758. Yet Turdus iliacus was used for the Redwing 

 by Willughby in 1676, Ray in 1694, and Brisson in 1760. 

 What a satire on the so-called system of priority ! 



