190 CA.MI'BEIJ, and SOX, Type Dcscriptiojis [\^,t f^"" 



ing their specimens well with colour drawinj^s and types for use 

 of students for all time. True, they made mistakes, but no one 

 can say their type descriptions were not reasonably descriptive, 

 and the species recognisable therefrom. 



The pinnacle of ])erfection was almost reached by John Gould, 

 who, in "I'irds of Australia," 1840, set a fine standard of excel- 

 lence in hand-coloured, often life-size, drawings, and complete 

 descriptions of specimens. 



None of these authorities, how ever, attaches to the type descrip- 

 tion a number or other sign to identify it with an individual bird- 

 skin, the specimen which shf)uld be known to science as the ty[)e 

 specimen. Most, hut not all, of Gould's types of Australian 

 birds are in U.v^./\. 



Indicati(jn, definition, (lescri|)tion : good, better, best are stages 

 of comparative worth. E\ idently an "indication" was accepted in 

 the Code to include the ancient authors back to Linne (1758), 

 the accepted starting ])oint of scientific nomenclature. 



-J definition, according to the dictionary — "a description of a 

 thing by its characters" — is a better standard which can and 

 should come well within the re(|uirements of the case of being 

 reasonable and recognisable. 



A description as used in the Code, is something better still. 

 Probably diagnosis is the proper word in translation of the 

 original. The word diagnosis is used twice in the Code (English 

 version), and then (^nly in some recommendations coming under 

 Art. 28, but in each case it is used as an interchangeable term 

 with descri]>tion, indicating that a description is intended to be 

 something more than a definition. 



Gould's work was of that complete nature re])resenting the 

 full meaning of the word diagnosis : — 



A complete description or specification to a standard accom- 

 panied by measurements and drawing of the type specimen, all 

 of which must be identified together in unmistakable manner. 



There is further light thi'own upon the matter by some of the 

 recommendations in the Code under Article 2'8^, where the rule is 

 formulated tf) deal with the union of genera (or species and sub- 

 species), then 



(a) "A generic name acc()mi)anied by specification of a tyi)e 

 has precedence of a name without such s]iecification. If 

 all or none of the genera have types specified, that 

 generic name takes precedence, the diagnosis* of which 

 is most pertinent." 

 ( /) ) "\ specific name accomi)anicd by both description and 

 iigure stands in i)referencc to one accomjianied only by 

 a diaynosis or only by a figure. 



♦Diagnosis according to Murray is a distinctive characterisation in 

 precise terms. 



