434 Mr. H. Seebohm on certain Points in 



scription, I can only come to the conclusion that Bechstein^s 

 bird is a very doubtful one, but that, having regard to the 

 absence of any allusion to the chestnut on the wing-coverts, 

 and the positive statement that the under wing-coverts were 

 bright orange, the probabilities are that it was a Song-Thrush 

 in first plumage, which, in consequence of being kept in a cage, 

 retained much of the immature plumage after the first moult. 

 Whether this was the case or not ; whether it was an abnormal 

 variety of Tardus musicus, or of some other Thrush, I cannot 

 say ; but it seems to me a gross violation both of the spirit 

 and of the letter of the Stricklandian code to accept this as a 

 clear definition of the bird hitherto known as Turdus fuscatus , 

 and to attempt to supersede that name by Turdus dubius. 



Acrocephalus arundinaceus , Newton, Ed. Yarr. B. i. p. 364 ; 

 Dresser, Birds of Eur. pt. Ixix. 



When Meyer transferred the Great Sedge- Warbler to the 

 genus Acrocephalus from the genus Turdus, in which it was 

 placed by Linnseus, and in which it was retained by Gmelin, 

 Bechstein, Meyer and Wolf (in their joint work), Temminck, 

 in his edition then published, and later by Vieillot, he found 

 that the specific name was already occupied by the Reed- 

 Warbler. His scientific instincts prevented him from creating 

 hopeless confusion by transferring the name of the Beed- 

 Warbler to the Great Sedge- Warbler, and he very judiciously 

 gave to the latter bird a specific name of his own, which, 

 among continental ornithologists, it has retained ever since. 



Gray appears to have been the first ornithologist to intro- 

 duce confusion by applying the name of arundinacea to both 

 species ; but he got over the consequent difiiculty by putting 

 them into different genera. Newton further complicated 

 matters by reuniting the genera, and retaining the name for 

 the larger species. This he was entitled to do under the 

 Stricklandian code, which makes no provision for cases of 

 this kind. His unfortunate, though legal, decision has been 

 indorsed by Harting, Blanford, Gurney^ Dresser, and others, 

 until the name has ceased to have a definite meaning, and 

 must be rejected altogether, all Stricklandian rules or British- 



