4O4 Allen, Status of Certain Swainsoniafi Genera. lot 



in the use of names. It is not for the overthrow of names estab- 

 lished by all the safeguards of formality, and as such accepted by 

 all authorities as satisfactory for three-fourths of a century, as in 

 the present instances. 



Furthermore, a careful examination of all the facts in the case 

 shows that the conditions in respect to some of the names here 

 particularly under discussion are not quite as represented by Mr. 

 Oberholser in his brief comment on them. In the case of Xiphor- 

 hynchus, he says: "Although Swainson evidently intended to make 

 Dendrocolaptes procurvus Temminck the type of Xiphorhynchus 

 [he expressly states that this species is the type], he defeated his 

 purpose by allowing the previous publication of Xiphorhynchus in 

 combination with the name of a species of another group, such 

 publication being quite sufficient to fix the name of a genus. 

 Since the case is not complicated by the mention of any other species, 

 Xiphorhynchus flavigaster Swainson must be considered the type 

 of Xiphorhynchus and this generic term therefore transferred to 

 displace Dendrornis." 



In the above transcript, I have italicised the points to which I 

 would call attention. It is hardly fair to say Swainson "allowed" 

 this procedure, for he had, under the circumstances, as detailed 

 above, no alternative. The reference to "another group" is also 

 hardly fair, since there was then no "other group" recognized in 

 this connection. At this time many species were grouped by 

 Swainson as congeneric which ten years later he placed in different 

 genera of his own founding. 1 At this time he considered his X. 

 leucogaster and X. flavigaster as congeneric with X. procurvus 

 (Temm.), the species he designated as the type of Xiphorhynchus. 

 Hence all the more should regard be paid to his designated types. 

 Again, instead of the case being " not complicated by the mention 

 of any other species," Swainson here described two species of 

 Xiphorhynchus, X. leucogaster and X. flavigaster, and Mr; Ober- 



1 In his 1827 paper on Mexican birds, he placed the species of both Zame- 

 lodia and Gtiiraca all under Guiraca ; and included under Agelatis ( = Age- 

 laius Vieill.) species of Agelaius, Molothrus and Xatithocephalits; and so on 

 in other cases. This feature of the subject, however, is merely of historic inter- 

 est, and has, of course, no important bearing on the main questions at issue. 



