152 Recent ly published OniithoIo(jical Wvrks. 



remarks on those of the present volume, which are similar in 

 character, though slightly better coloured. As regards the 

 letterpress, we are quite satisfied with the plan followed in 

 the present work and with the way in which it is carried out. 

 But in spite of the lively style in which Dr. Sharpe has 

 replied to our former remarks in the present volume, we are 

 still much discontented with the nomenclature which he 

 employs. It is certainly some alleviation that he does not 

 insist in his Handbook on commencing Birds at the '' wrong 

 end,'^ as he has done in some of his previous publications. 

 In the first volume the Passeres were treated o£, and now we 

 have the Picarians, Striges, Accipitres, and others, all in 

 familiar order, although strange names replace many of the 

 ordinarily accepted terms of the B. O. U. We are also 

 grateful that he does not follow our American friends in 

 their views as to the nomenclature of the Swans and Swal- 

 lows. But we see that Micropus is retained as the generic 

 name of the Swifts, although it has been shown (Ibis, 1894, 

 p. 131) to have been previously proposed (and to be now 

 in actual use) for a genus of plants. At the same time the 

 family is called " Cypselidae,^' not " Micropodidae.^' We 

 remark also that the " Suborder Coracise '^ is translated '' Pi- 

 carians,'' whereas Nitzsch's term Picarise was, we believe, 

 taken from Picus, a Woodpecker. But the Woodpeckers 

 are placed in another suborder ! In nomenclature, there- 

 fore, we are still at variance with Dr. Sharpe. Nor do we 

 by any means allow that our views are '' old-fashioned,^' and 

 that the verdict of the future, which he appeals to, will be 

 given in his favour. 



30. Stone on the Generic Term Calliste. 



[The Priority of the Names Calliste, A<jlaia, aod Calospiza, and their 

 use in Ornithology. By Witmer Stone. l*i-oc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad. 

 1895, p. 251.] 



We cannot agree with Mr. Stone in his proposal to reject 

 the name Calliste, long used for a genus of Tanagers {v. Cat. 

 B. xi. p. 95), because in 1791 Poli employed Callista for a 

 mollusk. If Picus and Pica are both retained for birds 



