That- Eggs and Nests. 29 



only, so that the list can easily be cut up into separate 

 slips as desired. 



There is, however, one special advantage attaching 

 itself to the "Ibis" List. I mean that it mves the 

 various sj^nonyms that have been proposed (and by 

 different authorities accepted) by scientific systema- 

 tists for our various British birds. To mve an in- 

 stance of what I mean : — Take the well-known bird 

 called the Bullfinch. In different systems it is called 

 Loxia PyrrJiula, PyrrJiula Eitropoca, PyrrJmla Vul- 

 garis, PyrrJiula Rubicilla, and PyrrJmla Pileata. 

 Here are five scientific " aliases " for one familiar bird. 

 The Lesser Redpoll and the Mealy Piedpoll each have 

 six such " aliases," and the Common Guillemot is so 

 very far from being ordinarily " respectable," that it 

 has a list of seven scientific " aliases " belonging to it. 

 Of course all this is, to an outsider, very absurd;^ 

 while to a would-be learner it is very perplexing. 

 The " Ibis " List tables all these aliases, as I have 

 called them — " synonyms " the learned call them — 

 and they may be seen and scanned at one glance. 



" The nesting-places," says Mr. Headley (" Structure 

 and Life of Birds," p. 348), " the nesting-places of all 

 the British migrants except one, the Curlew Sand- 

 piper, have been found, thanks chiefly to the energy 



1 It is, however, intensified, and in a much more serious degree, 

 in the list of synonyms (or as I have called them " aliases") given in 

 Mr. Henry Seebohm's ** History of British Birds," refixed to the 

 letterpress belonging to the description of cacn several species. 

 Thus the very familiar English bird, the ChifTchaff, has no less than 

 twenty-seven scientific synonyms printed below its Englisli (or 

 common) name. And for tlie purpose of this illustration, I opened 

 on it by the merest hazard. 



