182 BRITISH BIRDS. 



for this species, for Linnaeus named it " Motacilla 

 hispanica " in the Syst. Nat., Ed. X, p. 186. His 

 description is solely based on Edwards {Orn. nov., I, 

 PI. 31 and letterpress), who figured and described a 

 black-throated and a white-throated male. Although 

 rightly believing them to be specifically identical, he 

 erroneously described them as male and female. 



A similar dimorphism occurs in Saxicola pleschanka, 

 the white -throated form of which has been described as 

 a different species under the name of ;S^. vittata. On 

 October 19th, 1909, this bird was added to the British 

 list. {Cf. antea, Vol. III., p. 296.) 



The Name of the Black Redstart. 



The Black Redstart is now generally known as Ruticilla 

 tithys, but its correct name is Phoenicurus ochruros 

 g ihr altar iensis. The description of Motacilla titys 

 (Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, p. 187) is that of a female 

 of Phoenicurus phoenicurus, the Common Redstart. Not 

 only is this evident when one carefull}^ peruses the 

 diagnosis, but in Ed. XII (1766) Linnaeus himself says 

 that his titys is the female of the Common Redstart. 



It is, therefore, an impossible and unscientific proceed- 

 ing to retain the name titys, and it must be replaced by 

 the next oldest name, which is gihraUar iensis Gmelin, 

 1789. Seebohm {Catalogue Birds Br. Mus., V, p. 339) 

 accepted Scopoli's name tithys of 1769, but this proceeding 

 is of course quite unjustifiable, as the name had already 

 been used by Linnaeus in another sense, although 

 Saunders and others have adopted kSeebohm's nomen- 

 clature. 



Unfortunately, this is not aU, but as our Black Redstart 

 is a sub-species of the Caucasian form, which was already 

 named Motacilla ochruros in 1774, our bird becomes 

 Phoenicurus ochruros gihraltariensis. 



With regard to the generic name, it is known, and now 

 generally accepted, that Phoenicurus antedates Ruticilla. 



