^°iK2^'] CAMPBELL, Zoological .Voincnclatnrc. 227 



to the making of the "National Rules," and should not be made 

 retrospective for a century. 



Can anything be more foolish than an attempt to change the 

 specific name of the familiar Kookaburra (Laughing Jackass), 

 gigas, to novcc guinecpf Gigas has obtained for 138 yeais, while 

 novcc guineco, besides being geographically erroneous, has not, 

 until recently, been used authoritatively, or, as a matter of fact, 

 by ornithologists at all. 



Xovv, we come to another interesting point — interesting be- 

 cause of an attempt to stand down the strictly prior and well 

 known name superba for the Lyre-Bird. It is the devotees of 

 the law of priority who make the rule to overreach itself. They 

 take the letter (technicalities) for the law (actual). 



The history of naming the Lyre-Bird is a case in point. Major- 

 General Davies described the wonderful new bird before the 

 august Linnsean Society of London, 4th Nov., 1800, adding a 

 postscript to the description, June, 1801, in which year it was 

 probably published. That year (1801) Dr. Latham named the 

 Lyre-Bird novcc-Jiollandicc in a supplement of his "Index." For 

 convenience sake, the Linnaean Society apparently bound its 

 three years' "Proceedings" in one cover, under date 1802. Be- 

 cause it did so, is General Davies to lose priority in actual point 

 of time? Moreover, the plate of the Menura which accom- 

 panied his paper is inscribed "F. Davies, del. 1799" — two years 

 before the date of Latham's Supplement. The common usage 

 of the name superba for the Lyre-Bird is simply a "historical 

 fact." It is futile to argue against a fact. No academical 

 decree or technicality can alter a fact. 



Again touching the two fine and favorite parrots — the Red- 

 wing and the King. In 1865 Gould in his "Handbook" (vol. 

 ii., p. 37), wrote: — "The birds for which I propose the generic 

 appellation Ptistes are, in my opinion, sufficiently different in 

 form and colouring to warrant their being separated from 

 Aprosmictus and formed into a new genus." There you have 

 a definite starting place — a priority point ; yet some noH^ncla- 

 turers would transpose one name and bestow the new name of 

 Alisterus on the other. To alter the long standing and ornitho- 

 logically correct names of two common parrots, is, to borrow 

 the expression of a learned judge — "as a matter of common 

 sense, it has no justification." 



What is the remedy for a permanent ornithological nomen- 

 clature? As easy as it is final. It has been truly stated that 

 "the terrible war has broken down all tradition, all precedent, 

 all regard to settled practice." In any case the bottom has 

 been knocked out of the "International Commission for Zoo- 

 logical Nomenclature" for generations to come, if not for all 

 time. Dr. W'ardwell Stiles — its talented secretary — I think, will 

 tell you that. Then let us start afresh with the English-speak- 

 ing peoples' committee for the new Systema Avium, and de- 

 clare and fix authoritatively all bird-names, dropping, or at 

 least modifying, the inflexible law of "bed-rock priority." 



