Vol. XXII. 



1923 



1 CAMI'P.KLL and SON. Tyl^c Descriptions 189^ 



Perhaps we can jjalher what was in the mind of the committee 

 framing the Code by perusing some of the articles. 



Art. 2S. "The vahd name of a genus or species can be only 

 iIkU name under which it was first designated on the 

 condition : — 



(a) That this name was published and accompanied 

 by an indication, or a definition, or a description ; 

 (b} That the author has applied the principles of 

 binary nomenclature." 

 Art. 21 "The autlior of a scientific name is that person who 

 first ]uiblishes the name in connection with an indication, 

 a definition, or a description . . ." 

 As a sidelight there are four recommendations ijublished under 

 Article 30 — in reference to selecting a type. 



These excerpts make it reasonably clear that the Code assumes 

 or intends an original type specimen should be associated with 

 every scientific genus and species (including sub-species), and 

 that the type shall be that si)ecimen (or part of a specimen) first 

 described by the author of its valid name. 



We can proceed to the type descriptions and the types them- 

 selves, on which obviously the whole structure of nomenclature 

 exists. 



Some of the earliest naturalists were navigators or explorers, 

 possibly more intent on discovery of new lands and peoples than 

 they were upon natural history collections, certainly often taken 

 up with attention to food and water and their own daily cares. 

 Their descriptions of bird life were often casual and not at all 

 descriptive unless the author launched into an appreciative sen- 

 tence of some striking colour or habit. Such descriptions* were 

 not always taken from a particular individual specimen, in fact, 

 there is no evidence that the author ever did more than see the 

 bird in the bush. This is no type description in the modern 

 sense, but nevertheless such description is accepted by the Code 

 on the basis of being an "indication" of type ("indication," ac- 

 cording to the dictionary, being "an act of pointing out"). 



Then came another chapter in Australian ornithology, when 

 men like Quoy and Gaimard, Vigors and Horsfield (1830), left 

 their mark in bequeathing to us descriptions of sterling scientific 

 worth. They did science and themselves the honour of describ- 



*Narrative Voy. Capt. Cook, Ellis, 1782, p. 22. "The birds are 

 various though not numerous and some of them very beautiful, par- 

 ticularly a species of parraquet and a small bird of the niotacilla 

 genus with a bright blue head which we on that account called mota- 

 cilia cyanea." (Adventui'e Bay, Van Diemen's Land.) This is the 

 familiar "Blue Wren." Journ. Voy. N.S.W., White 1790, p. 257 (Type 

 description of Acanthiza pusilla) Motacilla fiisca suhfus pallida, caitrfa pro- 

 peap'cem fascia )j4sca (Brown Warbler underneath pale, tail near 

 tip with brown band). 



