1904 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 89 



the signs do not spell real words they could not be mistaken for anything 

 else. 



There would then be a marked difference between the specific and sub- 

 specific designations, and the one that marks only slight variations would 

 not appear very important, nor could it be used alone, but only in connec- 

 tion with the specific name. The dislike of trinomials has led some natura- 

 lists to maintain certain forms as species, which ought to have only sub- 

 specific rank; if some short and simple method, such as this, were in use 

 these species would soon be relegated to their right position, and the num- 

 ber of species be materially reduced. There has been, sometimes, almost 

 a craze for the discovery of new species, and to gratify it small and unim- 

 portant differences have been unduly magnified. 



There is an amusing and satirical passage in one of Mr. Ruskin's lec- 

 tures to the students at Oxford, which we would still do well to bear in mind 

 when we are tempted to devote too much time and energy to the detecting 

 of slight differences. He was speaking of birds, but the same principle 

 applies to all branches of zoology. "None of you," he says, "could have 

 much hope of shooting a bird in England which would be strange to any 

 master of the science, or of shooting one anywhere which would not fall 

 under some species already described. And although at the risk of life, 

 and by the devotion of many years to observation, some of you might hope 

 to bring home to our museum a titmouse with a spot on its tail which had 

 never before been seen, I strongly advise you not to allow j'our studies to 

 be disturbed by so dazzling a hope, nor your life exclusively devoted even 

 to so important an object.'-' 



This Society has, I believe, officially recommended its members to 

 adopt the nomenclature of Dyar's List of the Lepidoptera; but for identify- 

 ing species, I suppose many of us find Holland's books much more helpful 

 and useful, on account of the splendid illustrations, but to get Holland's 

 names, and then try to identify them with those in Dj^ar's List, is a work 

 that has a tendency, at times, to nearly drive one frantic. 



Then for general reference, when you want to see at a glance the posi- 

 tion and relationship of the different genera, a condensed list like J. B. 

 Smith's is very much more convenient than a voluminous one like Dyar's, 

 and, as he is very conservative of the old names, its use does not necessitate 

 the entire relabelling of a collection. Even Holland has left the old paths 

 in his arrangement of the Sphingidas, and has followed the revolutionary 

 scheme of Rothschild and Jordan ; though after preparing his plates for 

 the old way, it seems a pity to have changed the letter press at the last 

 moment; indeed, the opposition in order of the plates and the letter press 

 causes a good deal of irritation to the reader. 



All this confusion, of course, arises very largely from a persistent 

 application, without any discrimination or consideration of the great Law 

 of Priority, which, like other good things, is good in moderation, and tends 

 to secure a fixed and permanent nomenclature, but carried to an extreme 

 it defeats its own ends, and often produces an opposite result. If, when- 

 ever any obscure old author is found to have suggested a name for a species, 

 which, perhaps, no one else ever adopted, a few days even before the usual- 

 ly accepted name came into use, everything must be changed to carry out 

 the Law of Priority to its bitter end ; why the Law becomes a curse instead 

 of a blessing. There are many instances just like this where for seventy 

 or eighty years every writer has used a certain name, but because some old 

 fogey, two or three years before, suggested something else, the time hon- 

 ored and familiar appellation is all swept away, and confusion and irrita- 

 tion reign in its place. 



