196 BRITISH BIRDS. 



we have all the following remarking upon it : Macgillivray, Robt. 

 Gray, Rev. H. A. Maepherson, Buckley, and myself, as well as others. 



For my own part I think — always have considered — that such 

 varietal forms — if they are to be so distingviished as to receive a 

 trinomial, and sub-specific rank at all — should be possessed of (or by) 

 more descriptive and more definite geographical names than those 

 usually applied ; or otherwise be simply distingtiished — for Museum 

 uses— hy letters of the Greek alphabet. And for field purposes 

 such nonsense coqnomens are useless and confusing, and give no aids 

 to field-study or " bird-watching," whatever their uses may be in 

 museums. Tt would be pedantic and ridiculous to expect them to exist 

 under the pure air of any open country-side. 



J. A. H.\evie-Brown. 



