UP-TO-DATE SPECIES MAKING 75 



every town and village have little local peculiarities, so 

 have birds of the same species which live in different 

 provinces. The latest idea is to make each of these a 

 different sub-species with a special name of its own. 

 In the near future the scientific name of every bird 

 will be composed of three parts, the generic, the spe- 

 cific, and the sub-specific. Thus Mr. T. H. Newman 

 has discovered that the skin round the eye of the 

 ring-dove of Burma is not whitish, as it is in India, 

 but yellow ; Mr. Newman therefore manufactures a 

 new sub-species, which he calls Turtur decaocta xantho- 

 cydus as opposed to the Indian bird which he calls 

 Tiirtur decaocta douraca. We may consider ourselves 

 lucky that he has not made a new species of the Bur- 

 mese bird ! 



This is not an isolated case. Almost every unfor- 

 tunate species in the universe is being split up into a 

 dozen or more sub-species. Any local variation in the 

 colour of the plumage is considered sufficient justifica- 

 tion for the formation of a sub-species, and we shall 

 undoubtedly, ere long, hear of sub-sub-species ! ! 



The hopeless thing is that any Juggins can make 

 new sub-species. It is as easy as falling out of a tree. 

 Let me show how it is done. Take the common spar- 

 row. This pushing little bird, this " feathered Hooligan," 

 as Mr. Finn calls him, is found all over the world, and 

 every one is able to recognise the sparrow wherever he 

 ,meets him as the same bird that insults people in 

 London. But the sparrows of each country have their 

 little peculiarities. For example, the cock sparrow in 

 India has more white on his neck than his brother in 



