I 86 Stejneger, Analecta Ornithologica. [April 



Bn'itmich, 1764, or Fabricius, 1780 (nee Gmelin, 1788, nee auct. 

 plur.), Latham, 1787 and 1790, Bechstein, Meyer* and Wolf, 

 Temminck, Audubon, Swainson and Richardson, Gould, Ilolboll, 

 etc. The reinstatement of the proper name may cause some 

 inconvenience in the beginning, and somebody may ask : Must 

 we always be correct? I will answer that we must be correct 

 in this ease as in others (cf. Sylvia saiicaria, Sylvia rufa. 

 Sterna hir undo, and Stcrcorarius parasiticus) , and that the 

 correct name in time will he as well understood as Pendulinus 

 (intellige Xanthornus) , Scops giu, Ot/is acci pit r inns, Lanius 

 auriculatus or pomeranus, or, as I should say, Hioicoctonus 

 senator. Accentor collar is, Phylloscopus \ colly bit a y Anthus 

 trivialis, Gallinago iwlcstis, Tringa striata, Totanus canes- 

 ecus, Ariica ratio/' Jcs, Buhveria colombina (intellige B. bul- 

 ivcrii), Diomedea albatrus (intellige D. brackyura plur. auct.), 

 Balearica ckrysopelargus, (Edicnemus illyricus, etc., etc. 

 'There are two principles by which the question of the names 

 can he settled, the principle of priority or the auetorum-pluri- 

 morum-principle. As to these I will make Howard Saunder's 

 words mine, only substituting the name Falco islandus for 

 that of Lanius pomeranus : "The earliest unimpeachable de- 

 scription of the White Falcon is that of Falco islandus, Briin- 

 nich or Fabricius; and by the existing rules we must accept 

 it, and get used to it as soon as possible. Those who refuse 

 to dO this, and adopt names merely because they have been 

 sanctioned by the number or the authoritative weight of em- 

 ployers, will certainly go further and probably fare worse." 

 I will add, however, that the principle of priority must be 

 carried out regardless of consequences and ijot in the usual 

 slipshod manner, or else it is worse than the antagonistic 

 system ; it must also be carried out without delay, that k * we may 

 get used to the new names as soon as possible," or else these 

 changes will go on slowly but in all future. So much for those 

 who profess to believe that 1 "take a special delight in bring- 

 ing forward wholesale changes of familiar names." 



Having examined the large material (about 75 specimens) of 



* Meyer seems to have been the first one to suspect the true relationship between 

 gyrfalco and islandus, for in his "V6g. Lav- und Esthl."' (1815) p. 20, he says : "In den 

 Taschenbuch der deutselien Vogelkunde habe ich Falco Gyrfalco als eine Abart des 

 F, islandus aufgefuhrt, allein ich bin doch jetzt geneigt, ihn eher fur eine eigene Art zu 

 halten." 



