LE^rTERS. 268 



The interpretation, of the International Rules is another matter, 

 and it has been seriously considered, and a number of " opinions " 

 rendered by the International Commission (up to this date twenty- 

 nine have been published) deal with this. 



It is quite true that there have been different views about the adapta- 

 tion of generic names published without a diagnosis, but if Mr. Bonhote 

 were acquamted with ornithological nomenclature he would know that 

 numerous generally-adopted names for common birds, especially those 

 of Boie, Forster, Gray, Tunstall, Bonaparte, Reichenbach, and many 

 others, were published without a diagnosis. Nor do the International 

 Rules demand this. Article 25 (a) says : — -" The valid name of a genus 

 or species can be only that name under which it was first designated, 

 on the condition that this name was published and accompanied by 

 an indication, or a definition, or a description." If Mr. Bonhote had 

 [jublished a list in which occurred " Accentor harterti, British Hedge 

 Sparrow," as he suggests, of course his name would be a nomen nudum 

 and not available, because " Opinion 1 " has specially decided that the 

 word " indication " is not to be construed as including vernacular 

 names ! In the case of Forster's generic names for the Swallows 

 the case is, however, quite different, because " the citation of a type- 

 species " is held to make a generic name available. This has always been 

 the ojiinion of ornithologists, and to alter it would mean the alteration 

 of hundreds of the best known generic names. And, indeed, many 

 generic names are ten times clearer when a type-species is cited to 

 establish their meaning than when only a diagnosis is given, because 

 diagnoses for genera are difficult to make when one knows only a few 

 of the species belonging to the said genera, and they alter with the 

 increase of species in a genus, or when a larger genus of ancient authors 

 is divided into smaller modern groups. 



The statement that two wrongs do not make a right is quite correct, 

 but the opposite was never my opinion, and if Mr. Bonhote says we may 

 still, with a clear conscience, use Hirundo for the Swallows, Che'idon 

 for the Hovise-Martin, and Cotile. for the Sand-Martin, he does just what 

 he deprecates, i.e., he adopts a name {Chelidon of Boie) which is published 

 without a diagnosis, while he rejects Forster's earlier name ! Mr. 

 Bonhote might have looked up recent literature to find the name 

 Riparia frequently used, instead of charging me with " supporting 

 my statement by a single reference." Looking at my book, it is clear 

 to anyone that I, in order to save space, have not quoted any recent 

 literature, but only the first name given to the forms described in my 

 work. Suffice it to say that the name Riparia is universally used in 

 America, and almost so in Germany, since it has been adopted in 

 Reichenow's list of the birds of Germany, and the same author's some- 

 what important work on the Birds of Africa. 



Mr. Bonhote's kindness in calling my attention to pages 888 and 

 969 in the Proc. Inst. Zool. Congr., Berlin, is fully appreciated by me, 

 but I had seen them before, and there is nothing in those pages which 

 prevents me from preserving the original spelling of the names j^githahs. 



