288 TIMELIID.E. 



Dr. A. M. Morgan, who was in Sydney when I was examining these specimens, informed 

 me that he had also seen examples of Gcobasilciis rcguloidcs obtained in South Australia, that 

 were indistinguishable in colour from the typical form procured in the neighbourhood of 

 Sydney. All the birds, however, sent by ^Ir. Ashby and Mr. Zietz, ^•ary as described on the 

 preceding page. 



An adult male of this deeper coloured form from South .Australia measures as follows:^ 

 Total length 4 inches, wing 2, tail 1-5, bill 0-4, tarsus 07. 



I particularly wish to point out that I regard this darker-coloured race from South 

 Australia only as a geographical variation of the typical form of Gcobasilais reguloidcs. Likewise 

 also all the races, described in this Catalogue, for which I have proposed names, and which 

 appear in the text of the letterpress only and not as head-lines to a species. They are in my 

 opinion, however, far more entitled to full specific recognition than many others that are 

 recognised as such, say for instance, Acantliiza apicaUs and A. dioiienoisis. which are only really 

 geographical variations of A. pusilla, and not distinct species. ,\s 1 ha\e shown elsewhere," 

 I am greatly opposed to the multiplication of names, where they tend to mystify rather than 

 to assist any ordinary intelligent observer in identifying a specimen, without having first to 

 ascertain the locality in which it was procured. Giving full specific rank to what is only a 

 climatic race or geographical variation of the typical species, cannot be too strongly deprecated. 

 The mischief wrought, too, by the undue prominence given by some ornithologists to these 

 geographical variations, is shown in an excellent and most instructive paper read by Dr. Jonathan 

 Dwight, Junr., at the "Twenty-first Congress of the American Ornithologists' Union,'" | convened 

 in Philadelphia, United States, in November, 1903, — which I ha\ e here transcribed in full, — 

 entitled "The Exaltation of the Subspecies": — 



"Whatever may be the intrinsic worth (jf the subspecies, signs arc not wanting, at the 

 present time, that its value, especially in the domain of ornithology, is impaired by the undue 

 prominence which it has attained. Some of us hold it so close to the eye that all fields beyond 

 are obscured and the one near object becomes not a part of ornithology hut the aim and end of 

 all our research. Our efforts are so one-sided that minute \ariations of dimension or colour 

 are magnified by their very proximity imtil they aflbrd foothold for the rising flood of names 

 that threatens to undermine the very foundations of trinomial nomenclature. It seems to be 

 forgotten that the subspecies is only a convenient recognition of geographical variation within the 

 limits of the species. Its rise began when the distribution of the species of many parts of the 

 globe had been thoroughly determined, and systematists welcomed it as a new and useful outlet 

 for activity. Since that time down to the present, the dividing and re-dividing of old species 

 into geographical races or subspecies has gone on apace — not as a matter of making two blades 

 of grass grow where one grew before, but of splitting the one blade. 



"The luxuriant growth of the subspecies, while unquestionably due to numerous and 

 complex causes, depends, in a large degree, upon man's natural and proper desire to bestow 

 names upon the objects about him. Unfortunately the giving of a name, be it ever so 

 scientific, is hedged in by no prerequisites of scientific training, and many have been the 

 blunders committed through ignorance and haste. We are, after all, only human, but one of 

 the greatest misfortunes that can befall is when a dim conception of evolution leads us to 

 confuse plasticity of a form to its environment with plasticity in our own brain. We must 

 beware lest we name that which exists only in our expectant mind. A subspecies potential is 

 a fact, a subspecies named, an opinion, for in giving a name we express an opinion which may 

 or may not fit the fact. As a working hypothesis, it is convenient to consider the subspecies as 

 an incipient species, but to name every degree of incipiency is pushing matters to a point 



" Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat. — "Nests and Eggs Austr. Bds,, Pt: ii., p. 7S (1902). 

 t " Auk," Vol. xxi., p. 64 (1904). 



