NOTICES OF ESSEX ORNITHOLOGISTS. 17 



" During a visit I have recently been paying- to my friend Wm. Yarrell, we had 

 a thorough look through the London collections of birds and insects. There are a 

 few points respecting some of our British birds that we are very anxious to clear 

 up, especially as Mr. Yarrell is about to commence a work on ' British Birds ' to 

 correspond with his ' Fishes.' " 



The points were the di.stinctne.ss of the common Pied Wagtail and 

 the continental White Wagtail and the number of species of Ptar- 

 migan. 



This series of letters, many extracts from which will be found in 

 the following pages, also contains numerous interesting allusions to 

 and observations upon the current scientific topics of the day. It 

 is, however, to be regretted that rare birds are frequently referred 

 to without any reference to localities. This is unfortunate, but 

 until the last few years many even of the best ornithologists seem 

 to have paid very little attention to the localities whence came their 

 specimens. 



Doubleday's brief visit to Paris in 1843, proved to him an event of 

 great consequence. It led him to undertake the chief work of his 

 life. Whilst there, he observed that the system of nomenclature in 

 use among Continental entomologists was wholly different from that 

 employed by those in this country. His attention had, it seems, in 

 the previous year, been directed to the subject of nomenclature, as a 

 " List of the British Nocture " by him appears in the Entomologist 

 {'• P- 377) i''^ 1842. On his return, therefore, he set himself diligently 

 to work to compare the two, with a view of ultimately producing uni- 

 formity. The execution of this task necessitated a vast amount of 

 patient study and research, and it was not finally completed until 

 some thirty years later. The earliest result of his labour was the pub- 

 lication of the first edition of his Synonomic List of British Lepidoptera, 

 which appeared at intervals between 1847 and 1850. A second, and 

 much more complete edition, was brought out in 1859. This, with 

 supplements which appeared in 1865 and 1873 respectively, brought 

 up the number of recognised British species to nearly 2,100. The 

 completion of this list, commonly known as "Doubleday's List," almost 

 marks an epoch in British Entomology. Though little more than a 

 label-list it has proved of the greatest possible service. In 1836, 

 1 )oubleday had attempted to render a somewhat similar service to 

 British ornithologists, by publishing A Nomenclature of British Birds 

 (Wesley and Davis), which quickly ran through several editions.* 



* In the Imperial Dictionary of National Biography this is erroneously ascribeJ to 

 F.divard Doubleday. It was somewhat severely reviewed in the Naturalist (Neville Wood's ; 

 1337; ii., p. 60). 



C 



