376 Recently published Orniihological Works. 



now gives us what may be regarded as a continuatiou of his 

 former ^List/ drawn up in exactly the same way. It 

 contains some 200 generic names introduced as new during 

 the years from 1901 to 1905 inclusive, together with about 350 

 others of earlier date, the majority of which were not 

 recorded by Waterhouse. 



For this new ' List,' as for the former, ornithologists owe 

 Mr. Richmond their most sincere thanks. It will save them 

 many weary hours of severe labour by indicating exactly 

 when and where any particular generic name has been 

 first proposed. So far as we have been able to judge, it 

 has been prepared with great care, and merits our warmest 

 commendation. As in Mr, Kichmond's former ' List/ 

 each name is accompanied by an explanation of its origin. 

 Of course, authors of new names do not always tell 

 us from what they are derived, so in such cases the deriva- 

 tions have to be guessed, but this is not usually a difficult 

 matter. This part of the work, we are informed, is largely 

 due to Mr. H. C. Oberholser, and was finally submitted to 

 Dr. Theodore Gill for revision. 



While, however, we fully recognise the merits of Mr. Rich- 

 mond's work, Ave do not at all approve of the use that is likely 

 to be made of it. Mr. Richmond and his friends, of what we 

 may call the " ultra-prioriiarian " school, have discovered 

 some hitherto little-known works and memoirs, which, if 

 recognised, would cause changes in some of our oldest and 

 most familiar generic names. For example, it appears that 

 Bechstein first proposed the name "Accentor'' for the 

 Dippers, but afterwards transferred it to the Hedge-Sparrows 

 and used " Citiclus " for the Dippers. Mr. Richmond's 

 view is that '' Accentor " is, therefore, a mere synonym of 

 Cinclus," and should not be used at all ! The Hedge- 

 Sparrows are to be called " Laiscopus " — the next earliest 

 generic name given to them. It is difficult to realize the 

 confusion that would arise from such a change in the name 

 of one of our commonest and best-known birds. But this is 

 merely a sample of many similar proposals to change well- 

 established names for others that are practically new. We 



