332 Recent Literature. \'\^ 



much time and labor. Indeed it may well be taken as a model for a State 

 list. We note, however, that the Wheatear {Saxicola cenanthe) is referred 

 to as "A European species, straggling to New England, and once taken 

 at Boulder," Colorado, whereas it is a not uncommon bird in Greenland, 

 Labrador, and other parts of Arctic America. We regret to see, however, 

 that in the section devoted to the history of Colorado Ornithology, 

 generic names are printed with a lower case initial letter, which is not 

 only unusual and unsightly, but renders it much more difficult to individ- 

 ualize quickly the names of the species in a running glance through the 

 paragraphs. For this it is hoped the author is not responsible. Typo- 

 graphical errors are scarce, particularly in technical names, and the paper 

 as a whole is very creditably printed. 



The announcement is made that copies may be had gratuitously on 

 application to the Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Fort 

 Collins, Colorado. — J. A. A. 



Miller on Construction of Scientific Names.' — This paper is designed, 

 as stated in a note by the publication committee of the California Academy 

 of Sciences, as " a comprehensive, and at the same time readily accessible 

 and reliable, treatise on the rules that should govern the selection and 

 formation of scientific names derived from Greek and Latin," the com- 

 mittee believing that such a treatise would prove useful to local botanists 

 and zoologists of Western North America for many years to come ; and 

 they might well have added, of Eastern North America as well. Says 

 the author : " Various scientific writers have arbitrarily departed from 

 the philologically correct method of nomenclature established by Lin- 

 naeus ; moreover some difference of opinion now prevails in regard to 

 the formation, gender and inflection of certain New Latin words derived 

 from the Greek. Definite rules have been wanting, or at least not readily 

 available. Accordingly, at Dr. Jordan's request, and with his kind assist- 

 ance, I have undertaken to formulate a set of rules based upon philological • 

 principles and at the same time agi-eeing with the practice of consistent 

 nomenclators. Ultra-purism, however, as the writing of ai and oi for the 

 Greek at and oi or of k for Greek k, shall have no more consideration 

 than the philological monstrosities produced by a Rafinesque or a 

 Swainson." 



The rules given by Prof. Miller are clear and concise, and will certainly 

 be welcome to a large proportion of at least the younger systematists who 

 find themselves called upon now and then to provide names for new 

 genera and species or even higher groups. The rules are intended to 

 give directions as to how to construct properly names derived from Greek 

 and Latin, in future -work; they are not intended to be retroactive, for 



' Scientific Names of Latin and Greek Derivation. By Walter Miller, Pro- 

 fessor of Classical Philology, Leland Stanford Jr. University. Proc. California 

 Academy of Sciences, 3d. Ser., Vol. I, No. 3, pp. 11 5-1 43. 



