136 Letters, Extracts, and Notices. 



material progress, has been fought and opposed tooth and 

 nail by those who have been brought up in the schools 

 of thought of the previous epochs. Nevertheless, we have 

 always ended by adopting these innovations. So I feel sure 

 it will be with zoologists, when once they have grasped the 

 meaning of the trinomial nomenclature as applied to geo- 

 graphical races. Mr. Harvie-Brown has quite misunderstood 

 the nature of trinomials. He says in effect that the tri- 

 nomial is justified only so long as it has a " distinctive 

 geographical descriptive power." This is an impossibility, 

 for by far the largest number of trinomially treated forms 

 have been previously described binomially. 



Such is the case with my Aluco flammea nigrescens, which 

 has been described as Strix nigrescens by Lawrence. Such 

 was also the case with Dendragapus obscurus richard- 

 soni, which had been described as Canace obscurus, var. 

 richardsoni. In both these cases the geographical race had 

 been given a name which no one could be justified in changing 

 into Aluco flammea dominicensis or Dendragapus obscurus 

 montanensis. The question of calling the forms Aluco 

 flammea I., II., III., &c, or a, b, c, &c, is only raising a 

 quibble, and, moreover, a very dangerous quibble ; for it is 

 much easier for numbers or letters to be accidentally trans- 

 posed than quite distinct third names. If, as Mr. Harvie- 

 Brown suggests, we were to add the geographical range and 

 the exact locality to each specimen quoted in print, we 

 should be doing exactly what those who use trinomials avoid, 

 namely, we should be giving a long, many-worded description 

 instead of a short name. 



As to the question of different habits of different sub- 

 species, Mr. Harvie-Brown, I fear, has entirely misunderstood 

 the purpose of my instancing the habits of the Robin abroad 

 and in England. But the greatest justification for my calling 

 the English Robin " Erithacus rubecula melophilus," instead 

 of the " dark-breasted English form of Erithacus rubecula/' 

 is that while our indigenous Robins are all E. r. melophilus 

 and easily recognisable in the skin or alive, at Brighton and in 

 other south- and east-coast localities continental Robins are 



