Letters, Announcements, i^c. 381 



vides that where the description of a genus or species is not 

 sufficient for its identification, the name of such genus or 

 species should be ignored in favour of the earliest name which 

 is accompanied by a sufficient description. The practice of 

 ornithologists has, however, established a rider to this statute, 

 which we may call ornithological jMc^^es' law. According to 

 this uncodified law a name may stand upon the type specimen, 

 if such exists ; and the type specimen is allowed to eke out any 

 deficiency, and to correct any slight error in the description, 

 and even, in certain very exceptional cases, to condone its 

 absence. 



I find that Swainson's bird has too long a bill for Cetti's 

 Warbler. The culmen measures '&, whereas the culmen of 

 Cetti's Warbler varies from "45 to "Sb. It is also much more 

 buffy or more rufous on the flanks and under tail-coverts 

 than is usual in the European bird. The under tail-coverts are 

 of a uniform coffee-brown, whereas those of Cetti's Warbler 

 are tipped with white. Finally, " there cannot be a shadow 

 of doubt" that the specimen in question is not Cetti's 

 Warbler, because it has unmistakably twelve tail-feathers, 

 the European bird possessing only ten. 



After " critically examining and comparing Swainson's 

 type of Bradypterus platyurus" with Levaillant's plate of 

 " Le Pavaneur " in his Hist. Nat. des Ois, d'Afr. iii. p. 94, 

 plate 122, 1 see no reason why Swainson's identification should 

 not be correct. I have skins in my collection from the 

 Transvaal almost exact duplicates of Swainson's type. The 

 genus Bradypterus, as applied to Cetti's Warbler, therefore 

 falls to the ground, and must be retained for the African bird. 

 We cannot, however, retain Swainson's specific name, which 

 dates from 1837 (Swains. Class, of Birds, ii. p. 241), inasmuch 

 as Vieillot in 1817 (Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xi. p. 206) had 

 already founded his Sylvia brachyptera upon '' Le Pavaneur " 

 of Levaillant. The African bird, therefore (which is, by the 

 way, better known to ornithologists by a name of still more 

 recent date, Bradypterus sylvaticus, Sund.) , must rejoice in the 

 uneuphonious title Bradypterus brachyptei'us (Vieill.) . 



Cetti's Warbler was first figured in the Planches Enlumi- 



