270 ON ME. ALLAN HUME'S EEWEW OF [1874. 



of a complete work on the Parrots of the world he has only favoured us with the benefit of his 

 views on Dr. Finsch's treatment of eleven species, belonging to a single genus, Paheomis. Truly 

 but a small portion of Dr. Finsch's exhaustive monograph of the Order ! Mr. Hume's critical 

 remarks, though thus narrowed, cannot be described as either strictly complimentary or enucleate. 

 He assures us his " relations " with Dr. Finsch " have always been most friendly " {t. c. p. 28) ; 

 but his first impulse, after grudging the postage on a second copy, was " to throw the book into 

 the fire " (t. c. p. 4) ; and in this dignified frame of mind he proceeds, by a pitiless bespattering 

 of Dr. Finsch, to still further cement their "friendly relations." Besides many smaller, two 



Iliis, 1S74, serious charges are brought against Dr. Finsch. He is accused of treating Jerdon, Blyth, and all 

 !'■ "'^' Indian ornithologists generally with slighting discourtesy ; and, secondly, of displaying a wanton 

 and perverse ignorance of the species he has written upon — " error too, entirely gratuitous" [t. c. 

 p. 1). It is proposed in the following remarks to examine into these accusations and to ascertain 

 whether, considering their gravity when brought against a scientific man, they rest upon any 

 more solid foundation than Mr. Hume's assertions. With this object in view each species 

 knovm in the skin by Mr. Hume will be treated separately and in its order, while the remarks 

 of Mr. Hume on the remaining species of the genus, unknown to him, will be left unnoticed. 

 Some preliminary and lesser (speaking comparatively) attacks on Dr. Finsch deserve a cursory 

 review, and may conveniently be at once referred to. 



Before entering into details, Mr. Hume records his "humble protest against the pre- 

 sumptuous .... systematic pedantry which characterizes a certain section (chiefly continental) of 

 naturalists, and leads them to discard the names given, too often by better men than themselves, 

 .... for new-fangled appellations of their own, because, forsooth, their vast classical attainments 

 have enabled them to discover that the original name is not a ' dassich * gebildetes tvort ' f . 

 Dr. Finsch is a hardened offender in this respect, and cannot possibly be recommended to mercy " 

 (t. c. p. 2). And Dr. Finsch is then fallen upon for his alterations of the specific titles 

 scJiisticejJS, Hodgs., and " Jerdon's J columboides," to hodgsoni and peristerodes. "Let us," Mr. 

 Hume exclaims with an inimitable humour, " Let us treat our author as he treats other people's 

 species. ' Finsch' § ! contrary to all rules of orthography ! what is that ' s ' doing there ? 

 Finch' I Dr. Fringilla, mihi! Classich || gebildetes wort ^!!" (/. c). Nor is this dull drollery 

 permitted to expire. For, once and again, in sentences such as "now to return to Dr. Fringilla, I 



Ibis 1874 mean Finsch" {t. c. p. 4), and "regardless of the whole family of Fringillidce" (t. c. p. 20), its 

 p. 272. ghastly echos grate on the tortured senses. It is not desired to be too hard on these feeble 

 witicisms, nascent genius deserves encouragement, and their transcription to the pages of ' The 

 Ibis ' is a penalty sufficiently severe. Moreover it may be assured that if indulgence in such 

 dreary buffoonery amuses Mr. Hume, or insists in promoting in India, if not the credit, at least 

 the sale, of his periodical. Dr. Finsch will not grudge him the gratification. But deserving of 

 passing notice is the fact that even when elaborating a joke, Mr. Hume cannot avoid being 

 linguistically inaccurate. The German proper name ' Finsch ' and the English substantive 'finch ' 

 are not synonymous. 



* Corrected in errata. t Si(- t Sic. 



§ AH words in italics throughout this paper, other than titles of species, arc so printed by Mr. Hume. 



II Corrected in errata. % Sic. 



