328 



Recent Literature. bet. 



tion of the ' Rules,' twenty-eight in number, adopted by the German 

 Zoological Society for the scientific naming of animals, the explanations 

 and comment accompanying the original rules being, however, omitted. 

 'Appendix II' gives a convenient list of 'Titles of the principal Modern 

 Codes of Zoological Nomenclature,' eleven in number. 



The discussion following Mr. Sclater's paper included a communication 

 from Graf Hans von Berlepsch, and remarks by Sir William Flower, Mr. 

 Hartert, Professor Lankester, Mr. Elwes, Dr. D. Sharp, Mr. W. T. Bland- 

 ford, Dr. II . O. Forbes, and Mr. W. F. Kirby. In the main their views 

 are so inharmonious, aside from the three main points under discussion, as 

 to discourage the hope of an immediate general agreement on principles 

 of nomenclature. Some of the writers favored the Xth edition and 

 others the XHth edition of Linnaeus as the starting point ; some even 

 seemed doubtful about taking either, but favored the selection of some 

 much more recent period — some standard work for any branch of 

 zoologj' where such a work is available, taking the names there given, 

 whether right or wrong, and in defiance even of the law of priority. It 

 was also suggested that International Committees be appointed, " not to 

 draw up a Code of rules, but to produce an authoritative list of names — 

 once and for all — about which no lawyer-like haggling should hereafter 

 be permitted"! Any attempt to combat such crude notions would 

 evidently be a waste of energy! 



Professor Lankester, " thought the XHth edition of the 'Systema Naturae' 

 should be adopted as the starting point of Zoological Nomenclature, as a 

 tribute of respect to Linmeus, since it was the last edition of that work 

 and contained Linmeus's revised list of genera and species " Mr. Hartert 

 thought that the Xth edition of this work should be taken as the correct 

 starting point, " because in that edition Linnaeus first made use of the 

 binary system of nomenclature ; and as the question of justness had been 

 mentioned he considered that it would be unjust to authors who created 

 names between the dates of the two editions, if the twelfth were adopted; 

 he was, moreover, of opinion that if the XHth edition were adopted, 

 because it contained corrections and emendations of the older edition, it 

 would make a bad precedent, and that any other author might, if so 

 inclined, claim to alter his original names after he had created and pub- 

 lished them, and so cause confusion." We give this as the gist of the 

 whole argument on the matter of the two editions, and commend Mr. 

 Hartert' s clever rcductio ad absurdum. — J. A. A. 



Swann's Handbook of British Birds. — This little manual 1 is certainly 

 what its title implies — a concise handbook of British Birds, or, as 

 claimed in the preface, "a handy textbook of reference," small enough 



1 A Concise Handbook | of | British Birds | By | H. Kirke Swann | Editor 

 of "The Ornithologist." | — | London: | John Wheldon & Co., | 58, Great 

 Queen Street, W. C. | 1896. 1.6 mo, pp. viii-f-210. 



