recent publications witli which he is acquainted, in which any new 

 genera have been proposed ; and has thus endeavoured to make his 

 list as complete as possible. In this way, he believes that he has 

 brought together a much more comprehensive series than any that 

 has hitherto been given ; and although he had originally intended it 

 only for his own private use, he has been led to suppose, from the 

 frequency with which various ornithological friends have consulted 

 him relative to points connected with his MS. (which also contains 

 characters of the genera, the drawing up of which has occupied the 

 leisure hours of the writer for some time past, and may hereafter be 

 given to the world in a more perfect form,) that the list, when 

 printed, may be generally acceptable to Ornithologists. 



The arduous task of tracing back each genus to its source, and 

 of comparing and estimating the value of synonyma, (especially in 

 eases where, from the adoption of different principles of division, or 

 from the want of any principles at all, it was difficult to form a pre- 

 cise idea of the limits of the genera proposed,) was an essential part 

 of an undertaking, the foundation of whicli Avas to be based on "the 

 inflexible law of priority." From a Avant of the means of compari- 

 son, or from some other cause, it will be seen, on a reference to the 

 List, that many of the genera (restricted in exactly the same de- 

 gree) have received three or four synonymous appellations, Mhich, 

 to use an expression of Mr. Swainson, " strikingly illustrates the in- 

 extricable confusion which now reigns throughout every part of 

 ornithological nomenclature." Such confusion from " the multipli- 

 cation," says Dr. Richardson, "of synonymous names for the objects 

 of Natural History, has been often deservedly reprobated, as crea- 

 ting a barrier to the advancement of the science." To obviate this 

 inconvenience as much as possible, the compiler has subjoined, as 

 far as they are known to him, the synonyms of each genus, adopt- 

 ing in every case the name which, to the best of his knowledge and 

 belief, was earliest proposed. Acting upon this impartial rule, he 

 has not thought it just to follow the practice adopted by many wri- 

 ters, of rejecting names merely because they were unaccompanied 

 by characters, when there appeared a sufficient indication to deter- 

 ■mine their proper application. When the "meaning of the author," 

 ;says Mr. MacLeay, " is thus in some measure ascertained, I may 



