PREFACE. Vii 
name of Alecturus having been previously applied to another genus 
of birds. The repetition of sounds so nearly similar as these would 
inevitably tend to confuse ; and the few cases in which they occur 
have therefore been treated in the same manner as those of the 
former class. 
It will be seen that care has been taken to employ in every in- 
stance the oldest name given to each group, and at the same time 
to point out their synonyms; to both of these I have endeavoured, 
in all cases, to attach the date of their publication, so as to fix the 
right of priority to the several authors, as well as to exemplify those 
names which are coequal with the name employed. And as much 
complaint has been made of the growing evil of genera-making, by 
means of which the original describer of a species loses the honour 
of having first detected it, in the cases which are now considered 
admissible for generic distinction, the author of the modern genera 
taking the credit of the specific as well as of the generic names, I 
have proposed to obviate this cause of complaint by putting the 
name of the original describer of the species in brackets after the 
specific name, as may be seen on any page of the work. 
It may be as well to add that the list contains some genera 
established, in my opinion, upon characters too trivial to admit 
of their being definitively adopted; but it has not been my in- 
tention here closely to criticise the value of the subdivisions em- 
ployed. On the contrary, I have thought that I should perform a 
more acceptable service, by giving, as far as I was able, a correct 
notion of ail the genera that have been proposed in this branch of 
science, leaving it to the judgement of each individual who chooses 
to pursue the subject, to select those which he considers tenable, and 
to erase the rest. I agree with Mr. Vigors, that “no individual 
possesses the right of dictating what are, and what are not, good 
generic groups, or of erasing from the list of genera those of his 
fellow Naturalists which may not exactly square with his own 
particular view.” Indeed I am of opinion, that not only in lists 
of this kind, but also in monographs of species, all the information 
should be conveyed that may assist the student; and I strongly 
object therefore to the practice which has been followed by seve- 
ral modern writers of such works, of excluding all that they have 
