"Authorities'' to Scientific Names. 349 



to convert the binomial system of Linmeus into a triuomial 

 system. 



Ill tlie case of the non-scientific or ordinary reader it 

 seems to me that this practice is of very little advantage or 

 rather of no use at all. It is probably quite as much as the 

 ordinary reader can do to recollect the two terms of which 

 a scientific name is composed, without having to carry in his 

 memory also the name of the author who first published 

 the specific name. Moreover, the author's name is fre- 

 quently stated only in such an abbreviated or symbolical 

 form as to be quite unintelligible except to the expert 

 zoologist. Thus, " Bp.," " Gm./^ &c., which often occur 

 in zoological literature, arc terms well understood by the 

 zoologist, but are undecipherable enigmas to the outsider, 

 and, so far as he is concerned, may be advantageously 

 omitted. 



To the expert also, that the name of the authority for the 

 species should be added to the generic and specific name seems 

 to beof very littleadvautage. In the case of all familiar animals 

 (such as Fetis leo, Turdus musicus, Bufo calamita, &c.), it 

 may safely be omitted, as conveying no additional information 

 whatever. In the case of the less-known species it would be 

 much better to give, when it is considered necessary, a 

 reference to the original description of the species or to 

 some standard work (such as the ' Catalogue of the Birds in 

 the British Museum ') in which it has been described. In 

 the case of '' British Birds '' it is obviously unnecessary to 

 give more than the generic and specific names under which 

 the species is designated in the List of the B.O.U. This 

 List was specially prepared for the use of writers in ' The 

 Ibis ' by a Committee of experts. Saunders used the same 

 names in his excellent ' Manual/ and, with very few ex- 

 ceptions, they remain valid at the present time. 



I will not on the present occasion go into the vexed 

 question of " subspecies " and how to call them, but merely 

 repeat the conclusions which I have come to on this subject 

 as follows : — 



(1) That the " authority '^ (as it is usually called) does 



