South African Ornithology. 81 



in this district, and in the following winters of 1911 and 

 l'J12 a few have also remained about the district. 1 also 

 know of a single Greenshank which has spent the whole of 

 the present winter on a pan near here. 



I should like to conclude these notes with a protest 

 against what seem to me to be the two great evils of modern 

 Ornithology, viz., the constant search for priority in 

 scientific nomenclature and the rage for creating subspecies. 

 It would seem as if, now that the birds of the world are 

 becoming so well known and new species getting scarcer, a 

 certain class of naturalists must turn their busy brains to 

 something, and having no new species to describe and name 

 they must search about amongst ancient books and unearth 

 long-buried and disused scientific names that, according to 

 them, must take priority over names that have been familiar 

 since the days of our great grandfathers, to the no small 

 confusion of the average ornithologist. This is well 

 exemplified in a recent number of ' The Ibis,^ where such old 

 friends aa Strix flammea and Anas hosclias have had their 

 names altered beyond recognition. Luckily, the author of 

 the article in question has added the more familiar names in 

 common use. With regard to the modern rage for creating 

 subspecies, of course it is well known that some birds have 

 a very extensive distribution, and naturally, in some parts of 

 their range, they are subject to changes of plumage, &c. 

 By all means let these be named if the differences are icell 

 marked ; but nowadays the smallest difference in the length 

 of a bill, toe, wing, or slight variation of colouring seems to 

 be an excuse for the bestowal of a name. Some naturalists 

 seem to consider because a bird occurs in some small island 

 it 7nust differ from the same species on the mainland. A recent 

 writer on the ornithology of a certain island has even gone so 

 far as to differentiate such a migratory bird as the Cuckoo 

 (^Citcidus canorus). Is this bird resident on this small island, 

 or does it shorten its visage when it arrives ? Creators of 

 geographical races often name these races after their friends 

 or the discoverer, which conveys no meaning to the orch'nary 



