J 80 Observations on the 



Art. XXII. Some Observations on the Nomenclature of 

 Ornithology; ■particularly with reference to the admission 

 of new genera. By N. A. Vigoiis, J vs. Esq. A.M. 

 F.L.S. 



[In a letter addressed to the Editors of the Zoological Journal, May 1, 1824.] 



Gentlemen, 



It has been frequently observed, and the justice of the 

 observation has been admitted by every true lover of science, 

 that the progress of Natural History has been considerably 

 retarded by the overweening importance which has been attached 

 to the province of nomenclature ; by its being considered the 

 end, not the means, of science ; or, to use the words of a 

 distinguished naturalist of the present day, " a department of 

 Natural History," not u a convenient instrument whereby an 

 acquaintance with it may be more easily cultivated."* Not 

 only has the general inquirer into subjects of scientifick research 

 been deterred from entering beyond the surface into the secrets 

 of natural science in consequence of the forbidding aspect under 

 which it has been represented, but the views of many a zealous 

 naturalist have been perverted by the false light under which 

 it has been exhibited, and his co-operation in the true labours 

 of the science rendered abortive. When a student who aspires 

 to an acquaintance with nature is taught, that to display her 

 productions in his cabinets according to a favourite or fashion' 

 able code of arrangement, to assign each individual its respective 

 name, and to trace the various synonyms that may have been 

 conferred on it through all their windings, is the ultimate object 



* Horae Entomological, p. 24. See also p. 10. " The almost exclusive at- 

 tention which has of late years been unfortunately lavished on Nomenclature 

 and Systematic Arrangement, — on the means in short, and not on the end of the 

 science, — has with ignorant persons diminished the importance of the study of 

 Natural History itself." 



