Vol. ^^n Allen, Megalestris vs. Catharacta. 347 



of Stercorarius Brisson, which he intended it to replace, as shown 

 by his citation of Brisson, although he included in it the Skua 

 Gull, left in Lams by Brisson. His first species is Catharacta 

 skua, and his second, C. cepphus, which he figured, including 

 structural details, which thus renders it properly the type of 

 Catharacta} 



Brisson (1764) founded the genus Stercorarius for the Jaegers, 

 but left the Skuas in Larus. Illiger in 18 11 proposed Lestris for 

 the Jaegers and Skuas, citing both Catharacta Briinnich and Ster- 

 corarius Brisson, but recent authorities agree in considering Les- 

 tris a synonym of Stercorarius. Coues in 1863 adopted the name 

 Buphagus for the Skuas, taking it from Moehring, 1752, but sub- 

 sequently abandoned it, Moehring's names being pre-Linnaean 

 and hence not available. 



The first tenable generic name for the Skua Gulls is thus Mega- 

 lestris Bonaparte, 1856, as now currently recognized. 



The case of Megalestris vs. Catharacta temptingly offers a text 

 for further remarks on general questions here involved. Catha- 

 racta presents a good example of the results of emendation, for 

 whether used as a generic name for Penguins, Guillemots, or 

 Skuas, the word occurs in several forms in each case, while the 

 same form is found applied to more than one of the generic 

 groups, the form employed varying with the preferences of the 

 authors using the word. The forms Catharacta, Cataracta, Catar- 

 racta, Cataractes, and Catarhactes have, for example, all been ap- 

 plied to the Skuas, and also catarrhactes in a specific sense. As 

 cases like this are frequent in zoological nomenclature, it is mani- 

 festly best to employ only the original form, even if faulty, and to 

 apply the rule of priority to the forms of names as well as to the 

 names themselves. Further, it is emphatically evident that of 

 variants of the same word only the form having priority should be 

 available, while all the others should be rejected. 



'The ' Code of Botanical Nomenclature,' prepared by a Nomenclature Com- 

 mission of the Botanical Club of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, has been published since this article was sent to the printer 

 (see notice of this Code in 'Recent Literature'), in which, under Canon 15, 

 which deals with the selection of a nomenclatorial type of a genus or subgenus, 

 it is provided : " (b) A figured species is to be selected [as the type] rather 

 than an unfigured species in the same work." 



