86 Dr. P. L. Sclater on 



Diacobus Christianus Schaeffer, whose writings seem to 

 have been mostly on entomology, published two ornitho- 

 logical works — the 'Elementa Ornithological in 1774, and 

 the ' Museum Ornithologicum ' in 1789. In the first of 

 these Schaeffer used no specific terms, and his genera, there- 

 fore, cannot be accepted. But the second work, published 

 in 1789, twenty-three years after the issue of the twelfth 

 edition of the ' System a Natural,' cannot be so easily disposed 

 of. Schaeffer's ' Museum Ornithologicum ' consists of an 

 enumeration and description of the specimens of birds in 

 his own Museum, "prepared in a new way." Two hundred 

 and twenty-nine specimens are catalogued, and referred to 

 fifty-nine genera. At the head of each species stands the 

 name in three languages — Latin, German, and French. 

 Thus No. 3 of Schaeffer's ' List ' is designated 



U COLUMBA PALUMBUS. Le PlGEON RaMIER. RlNGELTAUBE," 



after which follows a short Latin diagnosis and references to 

 previous authorities — usually Brisson, Linnaeus (' Systema 

 Naturae/ 12th edition), and Buff on, besides others. The 

 whole of the two hundred and twenty-nine Latin names of 

 Schaeffer in the work are binomial, with the following five 

 exceptions : — 



No. Name. Page 



26. Accipiter Circus major 8 



83. Passer Passerculus Bononiensis .... 25 



84. Passer Linaria vulgaris 26 



108. Alauda cristata minor 32 



251. Psittacus amazonicus f route luteo ... 45 



Now it seems to me to be rather hard to refuse to recognise 

 the generic names established in the present work because, 

 out of some two hundred and twenty specific names, five are 

 not strictly binomial. Trinomials, we know, are much in 

 vogue at the present time, and I have heard that the idea of 

 such names as quadrinomials is entertained, so we should 

 not be too severe on Schaeffer's slight lapses from orthodoxy. 



Let us now consider Schaeffer's fifty-nine generic names 

 used in the present work, which are mostly those propounded 



