Review of Dr. Finsch's ' Die Papageien.' 271 



accused of treating Jerdon, Blyth, and all Indian ornitholo- 

 gists generally with slighting discourtesy ; and^ secondly, 

 of displaying a wanton and perverse ignorance of the species 

 he has written upon — " error too, entirely gratuitous " {t. c. 

 p. 1). It is proposed in the following remarks to examine 

 into these accusations and to ascertain whether, considering 

 their gravity when brought against a scientific man, they rest 

 upon any more solid foundation than Mr. Hume^s assertions. 

 With this object in view each species known in the skin by 

 Mr. Hume will be treated separately and in its order, while 

 the remarks of Mr. Hume on the remaining species of the 

 genus, unknown to him, will be left unnoticed. Some pre- 

 liminary and lesser (speaking comparatively) attacks on Dr. 

 Finsch desei-ve a cursory review, and may conveniently be at 

 once referred to. 



Before entering into details, Mr. Hume records his " hum- 

 ble protest against the presumptuous .... systematic pedantry 

 which characterizes a certain section (chiefly continental) of 

 naturalists, and leads them to discard the names given, too 

 often by better men than themselves, .... for new-fangled 

 appellations of their own, because, forsooth, their vast clas- 

 sical attainments have enabled them to discover that the ori- 

 ginal name is not a ^ classich* gebildetes wort'f. Dr. Finsch 

 is a hardened offender in this respect, and cannot possibly be 

 recommended to mercy " {t. c. p. 2) . And Dr. Finsch is then 

 fallen upon for his alterations of the specific titles schisticeps, 

 Hodgs., and " Jerdon^s J columboides ," to hodgsoni oxidi per is - 

 terodes. " Let us,^^ Mr. Hume exclaims with an inimitable 

 humour, " Let us treat our author as he treats other people^s 

 species. ' Finsch ' § ! contrary to all rules of orthography ! 

 what is that ' s ' doing there ? ' Finch ' ! Dr. FringiUa, mihi ! 

 Classich 1| gebildetes wort ^ ! ! " (/. c.) . Nor is this dull drollery 

 permitted to expire. For, once and again, in sentences such as 

 "^now to retm-n to Dr. Fringilla, I mean Finsch ■'■' {t. c. p. 4), 



* Corrected in errata. t Sic. % Sic. 



§ All words in italics throughout this paper, other than titles of species, 

 are so printed by Mr. Hume. 



11 Corrected in errata. U Sic. 



v2 



