270 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



Heer J. P. van Wickevoort Crommelin continues in the 

 ' Archives Neerlandaises ' his series of careful papers on the 

 ornithology of the Low Countries. Two of these, published 

 during the past year, are now, by his kindness, before us. The 

 first, headed * Notes ornitbologiques sur la Faune des Pays-Bas,' 

 in commenting on the works of Prof. Schlegel [cf. Ibis, 1859, 

 p. 460) and HH. Bemmelen and Albarda*, contains some 

 remarks on the nomenclature of various European species, 

 which is in such a tangled state as really to form a dignus vindice 

 nodus. The second, equally interspersed with the same kind of 

 criticism, is entitled ' Remarques sur la Faune Ornithologique 

 de la HoUande,' and consists of observations made in that 

 country, which may be regarded as supplementary to those of 

 Baron Droste in his work lately noticed by us [antea, p. 128). 

 Each paper displays as much erudition as careful observation 

 on the part of the author ; but acceptable as they are to ornitho- 

 logists, it does not seem to us that any of the facts recorded 

 require especial mention here. We must, however, protest 

 against some of Herr Crommelin's views of scientific nomen- 

 clature, and in particular against the importance which he at- 

 taches to what he regards as " genera " established by Gesner 

 and Willughby, and in the ' Vorstellung der Vogel Teutschlands ' 

 of J. L. and J. C. Frisch. Those authors had plainly, as may 

 be seen by consulting their works, no idea of any thing like a 

 scientific "nomenclature,^' such as was founded by Linnseus : 

 they of course called the birds they figured and described by 

 names, as all writers in all ages have done, and they used for 

 those birds Latin and French as well as German or English 

 names ; but the first are simply translations of the vernacular, 

 and their adoption puts an end to the beautiful method, no less 

 philosophical than practical, invented by Linnseus. There may 

 be some reason for biologists to hesitate as to the particular 

 edition of the great Swede's works they should take for their 

 starting-point ; but surely all will allow that priority has its 

 limits as well as its rights, and in this matter the " ancients " 

 are ultra fines reipublica. 



* Boustoffen voor eeue Fauna van Nederland, ii., iii. 



Vr 



