described by Linnfieiis and Gmelin. 325 



when modern titles have come into conflict, the right of priority 

 has invariably been asserted by the living author who felt his 

 claim assailed. 



But in the practical working of the rules the results are not 

 as great as, after so many years of trial, we might fairlv have 

 expected. For this one reason is to be found in that rule which 

 leaves it optional to authors to alter the old titles they do not 

 consider appropriate. Thus the door is opened for the admis- 

 sion of every caprice, and confusion necessarily follows. What 

 is first required is to ascertain and indisputably establish by 

 universal agreement the oldest title of 3very species. When that 

 is done it will be time enough to decide what titles are to be re- 

 tained and which are to be rejected. But the principal reason 

 why ornithological nomenclature has not reached the advanced 

 position we wish it to occupy — -the position of a cosmopolitan 

 language conveying definite and identical ideas to all minds, is 

 because no systematic effort has as yet been made to determine 

 all the species of the older authors and place their titles as a 

 whole on a firm foundation. To Sundevall, Pucheran, and 

 Gray we are greatly indebted for the immense labour they have 

 expended on their respective endeavours to identify the species 

 of Sparrman and Le Vaillant, of Cuvier, Vieillot and Lesson, 

 and of Buffon, Temminck, Le Vaillant, Edwards and Vieillot ; 

 while Moore and Cabanis, Hartlaub, Malherbe and Finsch have 

 devoted an amount of sound labour on the nomenclature of the 

 species they have to deal with, which can only be thoroughly ap- 

 preciated by those who are well acquainted with their work. Nor 

 must we foi'get the late Mr. Strickland and, alas ! Mr. Cassin. 

 Yet the foundation of a correct system of nomenclature cannot 

 be said to have been laid until the whole of the species enume- 

 rated in the Xllth and Xlllth editions of the 'Systema Naturse,' 

 the very corner-stone of the structure we desire to raise, have 

 been either identified or disposed of. As a slight contribution 

 to a work of this nature I purpose in the following pages to 

 attempt the identification of the species belonging to the 

 modern family of the Cuculidce described in these two editions of 

 the ' Systema/ 



In the Xlltb edition twenty-two species were enumerated by 



N. S. VOL. V. z 



