Vol. XXXVI11 



192(1 



Loomis, Procellaria alba Gmelin. 91 



To the specialist in the Tubinares, changes in specific names, as 

 above, and in generic names, as Mstrelata to Pterodroma and Dap- 

 tion to Pctrclla, are intellectual stimuli rather than handicaps. 

 But to the general student of ornithology instability of names has 

 become a positive hindrance, from which our present nomenclatural 

 rules afford no immediate relief, as is evidenced by the long lists of 

 proposed changes that appear from time to time in 'The Auk.' 1 

 The remote date of the starting-point of our present-day nomen- 

 clature is the chief obstacle to the stabilization of bird names. The 

 combined efforts of nomenclators since the adoption of the law 

 of priority have failed to fathom the depths of the zoological litera- 

 ture of the past one hundred sixty years. Obviously, if we could 

 abandon this bottomless pit, our task would be lighter. An oppor- 

 tunity is offered in the projected 'Systema Avium.' After the 

 joint committee of the ornithologists' unions has done its utmost 

 under the existing rules, and published the results, a new starting- 

 point could be set for ornithological names, namely, the date of 

 publication of the 'Systema Avium.' Should other names be 

 required thereafter, it would be the province of the joint committee 

 to sanction the coining of new names, letting " the dead past bury 

 its dead." When the other departments of zoology have been set 

 in order, it will be time enough to consider harmonizing zoological 

 nomenclature as a whole. 



It should be emphasized, that the number of bird genera to be 

 recognized is a matter of classification, and not of nomenclature. 

 Monographers, according to temperament, will differ respecting the 

 number to be accepted, but it is believed that in the end simplifica- 

 tion will prevail over complication. Any classification that we may 

 adopt must be largely arbitrary. A natural system is ' a dream of 

 Utopia.' 

 California Acad. Sci., San Francisco. 



1 It seems again necessary to call attention to the fact that the changes listed in the April 

 issue of 'The Auk' are not nomenclatural changes, but changes due entirely to questions 

 of ornithology. [Ed.] 



