Ornithological Nomenclature. 429 



the spirit of the law^ has endeavoured to carry out the British- 

 Association rules to the " bitter end," and, as he himself 

 admits, " regardless of consequences " ! In an obscure writer 

 such a reckless course would have been of no consequence, 

 but pursued by Professor Newton, who is admitted by the 

 majority of British ornithologists to be the greatest authority 

 on ornithological literature, its effects have been truly disas- 

 trous. Even in the small instalment of Newton^s work 

 which has been hitherto published, there has been a great 

 slaughter of the innocents. It seems very hard to have to 

 give up Bubo ma.vimus, Strix brachyotus, Phylloscopus rufus, 

 Sylvia cinerea, Sylvia hortensis, and many other names familiar 

 as household words to us from our childhood. Dresser, in 

 his ' Birds of Europe,^ has, however, " outheroded Herod.^' 

 Wherever Newton has made a change. Dresser has blindly 

 followed him ; and in too many instances, instead of being 

 satisfied to carry out certain of the British-Association rules 

 to the uttermost, he has gone even further still, and given 

 the doubtful name the benefit of the doubt, apparently for no 

 other reason than because of its novelty. To make confusion 

 more confounded, Sharpe, in his ' Catalogue of Birds,^ after 

 following Newton^s unfortunate lead through two volumes, 

 then turned suddenly round, and in his third volume openly 

 violated the rules, choosing for the purpose, amongst others, 

 an instance especially selected by Strickland for disapproval. 

 I may be doing Sharpe an injustice in charging him with 

 inconsistency. Probably he came to the conclusion that 

 Newton, Dresser, and he had given the British- Association 

 code rope enough, and that it had hanged itself before his 

 third volume was published. 



For a year or two I have urged upon several of my orni- 

 thological friends the importance of taking action on this 

 disgraceful state of our favourite science, a position of affairs 

 which has excited the derision of some of our continental 

 associates, but hitherto in vain. Now that a decision is forced 

 upon me, I have come to the conclusion that the only course 

 open to a conscientious ornithologist, is to attempt to codify 

 the existing ornithological "judges' law;" in fact, to alter 



