423 



based on the International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature and unani- 

 mously agreed upon by a special committee of professional ornithologists 

 upon which the following gentlemen served: J. A. Allen (New York), 

 E. Hartert (Tring), C. E. Hellmayr (Munichi, H. G. Oberholser (Wash- 

 ington), C. W. Richmond, secretary (Washington), K. Ridgway (Wash- 

 ington), L, Stejneger (Washington), and W. Stone (Philadelphia). 



27) It is the intention of the Commission to send this list of names to press 

 in the very near future and to give ample opjjortunity to the zoological pro- 

 fession to offer objection to any of the names in question. Shortly after Ja- 

 nuary 1, 1914, the Commission contemplates announcing the fact whether 

 or. not objection has been raised and will issue an Opinion i-egarding the 

 adoption of the List. This Opinion would then be laid before the Tenth 

 International Congress for confirmation. 



28) A third list, consisting of 430 names "to be rejected'', is sub- 

 mitted by the Commission. These names also have been made public with 

 invitation to zoologists to present arguments showing why any of said names 

 should not be i-ejected. This list is to be interpreted simply as follows: 

 Word has reached the Commission in one form or another that these names 

 are absolute homonyms and therefore (Art. 34) unavailable ; under these 

 circumstances the Commission will consider the names in question as still- 

 born unless evidence is presented that the premises now before the Com- 

 mission are erroneous; further, the Commission suggests to authors that they 

 cooperate in the work by either correcting the premises before the Com- 

 mission or by discontinuing to use the names. The "To be rejected" list 

 consists thus far of 430 generic names, distributed as follows: Trematoda, 

 22: Nematoda, 40; Gordiacea, 1; Acanthocephala, 2; Diptera, 92; Mam- 

 malia, 273. 



29) Many other names, supposedly valid or supposedly unavailable, 

 are still under consideration either by the Commission or by the several 

 special sub-committees, but no further work in this line is contemplated 

 unless the present Congress distinctly expresses its desire to have the labor 

 continued. 



30) In the opinion of the Commission, work of this nature is distinctly 

 constructive and promises the ultimate possibility of an international and 

 authoritative list of the names that should be applied to the most commonly 

 cited 5000 to 10000 zoological genera. 



46) Presumable permanency of the Official List. — That 

 the question as to the presumable permanency of an Official List based upon 

 the Law of Priority may arise in the minds of many zoologists is to be taken 

 as self-understood. This question may be answered as follows : 



47) Changes in names dependent upon changes in conceptions of clas- 

 sification can not be foreseen from one generation to the next and any plan 

 for nomenclature that ignores this point makes promises that can not count 

 upon being fulfilled. The following statistics, however, worked out by Lester 

 P. Ward (1895), give an indication of the changes that may reasonably be 

 expected to occur upon nomenclatorial grounds : 



48) By taking the first 50 genera given in the American Ornithologists' 

 Union check-list, it is found that in only 5 cases did the generic name re- 

 main unchanged from 1859 to 1886. Thus prior to the establishment of the 



