o/ a Type to Linn<2an Genera. 95 



'The Ibis' (1875, pp. m, 67, footnote), and in one of the 

 papers by which Mr. Sharpe has enriched the well-endowed 

 literary history of the Accipitres {torn. cit. pp. 324-328). 

 Still the authority which each of these gentlemen wields, and 

 the learning which they both possess, is so great, that all must 

 feel that as much as can be said on their side of the question 

 has been said ; and when I add that this has not shaken my 

 belief, I cannot but entertain a hope that I shall not be driven 

 from the position I found myself (not without considerable 

 reluctance) compelled to take up. But it seems to me that 

 a fuller statement of the facts of the case than I had room 

 originally to make, may not be without its use to those who 

 perhaps may be halting between the two opinions ; while 

 courtesy itself requires of me some reply to my friendly 

 critics. Besides this I have an error, which they have not 

 detected, to acknowledge, and, if possible, to repair; while, 

 furthermore, it appears to me that some advantage may fol- 

 low from a consideration of the method which should be 

 adopted in assigning a "type" to the genera of authors to whom 

 the notion of a type species, as we nowadays understand it, 

 was altogether strange. This last, indeed, may be said to 

 underlie the whole question I propose to discuss ; and, having 

 an important general bearing, I proceed to take it first. 



When the existing notion of a type species was first pro- 

 pounded, and when it became generally adopted, are matters 

 upon which I need not now enter, even if I felt myself com- 

 petent to treat of them. They may for the present be left 

 until some one shall write the history of systematic biology. 

 It will hardly be denied, I think, by any one having a mode- 

 rate acquaintance with the works of Linnaeus, that no such 

 notion was ever entertained by him, though one would sup- 

 pose that it must have presented itself to his mind, from the 

 fact that it was familiar to, and was almost constantly acted 

 upon by his contemporary, Brisson. Yet we may search the 

 writings of Linnaeus in vain not only for the word " type,-'-' 

 used in the meaning of modern systematists, but, if I mistake 

 not, even for any expression equivalent to it. It therefore 

 follows that extreme caution must be used in the assignation 



