422 Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 



Anyhow, I should like to ask him whether he thinks the 

 case of Anser fahalis so very different from that of Puffinus 

 gravis (O^Reilly), a name used by Mr. Salvin (Cat. Birds 

 B.M. XXV. p. 373) in preference to Puffinus major (Faber). 

 Under this name tlie Greater Shearwater had been known 

 for seventy-four years, from 1822, till Mr. Salvin revived 

 O'Reilly's name, which has a jjriority of four years over that 

 of Faber. The reviewer of Mr. Salvin's volume says that 

 tlie nomenclature used there is such as will be famiHar to 

 most students of the order. I must confess that the name 

 Puffinus gravis was not familiar to me, and I should say 

 that it was quite utdinown to my brother ornithologists 

 before INIr. Salvin revived it. 



As to the name Nyroca africana (Gm.), the reviewer 

 asserts : — 



1st. That " africana " has never been used as the specific 

 name of the White-eyed Duck; 



2ud. That Gmelin's name Anas africana may or may not 

 refer to that species ; 



3rd. That Gmelin's name Anas ferruginea has been in 

 use for the last hundred years. 



All these three statements are incorrect. Beginning with 

 the second point, which is the foundation of the question, 

 Gmelin's name Anas africana is based on the " Sarcelle 

 d'Egypte," D'Aubenton, PI. Enl. no. 1000, which, as any- 

 body will easily recognize, is an excellent representation of 

 the White-eyed Duck, so that there is no possible doubt 

 whatever that the name Anas africana applies to the species 

 under consideration. 



Coming to the third i)oint, it is not correct to say that 

 Anas ferruginea has been in use for the last hundred years. 

 The truth is that this name — used by Gmelin (1788) and the 

 following compilers: Latham (1790), Bonnaterre (1790), 

 Vieillot (1816), Dumont (1817), and Stephens (1824)— was 

 first revived in 1872 by Harting (Handb. Brit. B. p. 64) and 

 by Sliarpe and Dresser (B. of Eur. vi. p. 581). During that 

 period of forty-eight years the name ferruginea was never 



