142 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



a diagnosis or a long description." This may be 

 true ; but it is equivalent to saying that if a given 

 author will tell us what he is talking about, we 

 can form a better idea of his meaning than we 

 shall have if we listen to his statements. Possibly 

 the line must be drawn somewhere between the 

 *' typonym " and the " iiomen nudum ; " but both 

 are valueless in fact, and it is a pity that any 

 science should feel compelled to notice either. 



Canons XLIV. and XLV., requiring <^to/?/^^ iden- 

 tification to secure priority, will offer some difficul- 

 ties in practice ; and it is in this regard that most 

 fluctuations in nomenclature in future are likely 

 to occur. Really '' absolute " identification of de- 

 scriptions is often difficult among birds, and in 

 more obscure groups it becomes less and less easy 

 of attainment. 



With these exceptions, the rules of the " Code " 

 seem to the present writer to be above cavil, and 

 to fill the needs of other naturalists quite as well as 

 they do those of ornithologists. With the exceptions 

 of Canons XVII. and XVIII., which seem to him 

 unwise, and which, in fact, he cannot use at all, and 

 possibly that of Canon XLII. in so far as this rec- 

 ognizes the validity of typonyms, the entire "Code" 

 must certainly be adopted by workers in ichthy- 

 ology. I hope and believe that other branches of 

 science will find these rules equally satisfactory, 

 and that this may soon become in all important 

 respects the code of nomenclature for zoology 

 and botany as well as for American ornithology. 



