212 • Correspondence. [.sf'jan. 



the very time that I was examining this rookery a party of fisher- 

 men caught ten dozen whiting less than a mile away ; yet in the 

 rookery there was not a single whiting to be found. — Yours, 

 &c., A. M. MORGAN. 



46 North-terrace, Adelaide, 11/12/18. 



RE-NAMING AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



To the Editors of " The Eimi." 



Sirs, — Regarding the debate on the above-mentioned subject 

 at the conversazione of the R.A.O.U., as recorded in The Emu, 

 ante, pp. 144-147, may I presume on your courtesy for a brief 

 rejoinder ? 



I had hoped to keep the controversy out of this journal by 

 printing my address at my own expense and distributing it 

 privately, leaving my opponents to follow suit, if they thought 

 fit. 



Although my address occupied the greater part of the evening, 

 it has been modestly mentioned in less space than you have 

 allotted to each of my opponents and to the chairman's " summing 

 up," leaving readers to infer that I had no case. " No desire was 

 expressed " for a vote, because it was then of little value to either 

 side. 



At the opening of my address, and subsequently, I put par- 

 ticular stress on re-naming Australian endemic birds. Un- 

 fortunately, Mr. Alexander took for his illustrations generic names 

 of cosmopolitan birds that he thought required alteration — to wit, 

 Phalacrocorax (Cormorants) and Fregata aqnila (Frigate-Bird). 

 For these the compilers of the R.A.O.U. " Check-list " followed 

 the classification and nomenclature in the British Museum's 

 " Catalogue of Birds," vol. xxvi. Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant dealt 

 with the genera and nomenclature. In the preface to the volume 

 the Director, the late Sir W. H. Flower, F.R.S., certifies : — " The 

 ' Catalogue ' is based, not only upon the immense collection of 

 birds in the Museum, but also upon all other available material 

 contained in public or private collections or described in zoological 

 hterature. It therefore professes to be a complete Hst of every 

 bird known at the time of the publication of the volume treating 

 of the group to which it belongs. Under the heading of each 

 species is a copious synonymy, references being given to every 

 mention of it which occurs in standard books or journals. This 

 has been a work of prodigious labour, but it is hoped that, being 

 fairly exhaustive, it has been done once for all, as far as existing 

 literature is concerned." Does Mr. Alexander place his opinion 

 before that expressed by the deceased savant, and infer that the 

 nomenclature of an official and classic work is incorrect ? 



My other opponent, Mr. Mattingley, took very high ground — 

 in fact, so high that it was out of the realm of practical or popular 



