Letters, Extracts, Notices, &;c. 4.23 



used by ornithologists * who were acquainted with the White- 

 eyed Duck, but they constantly employed either Borkhausen's 

 name " leucophthalma '"' or the specific term " nyroca.'^ 



Going back to the first point — the assertion that ^'africana'^ 

 has never been used as the specific name of the White-eyed 

 Duck, — I repeat that this also is incorrect. In fact, the 

 name Nyroca africana was used in 18i4 by Gr. R, Gray 

 in the 'List of Birds in the Brit. Mus." iii. p. 14i, thus 

 reviving the name africana twenty-eight years before 

 Harting, Sharpe and Dresser revived the younger name 

 ferruginea. It follows from all this that the name Nyroca 

 africana is not a bad name, but the proper one for the 

 White-eyed Duck. 



The case of Nyroca africana is very much like that of a 

 small African Teal named Querquedula hottentota, Smith 

 (1837), and recognized under this name till 1880, when 

 Mr. Sclater (P. Z. S. 1880, p. 522), following Prof. A. New- 

 ton {V. Z. S. 1871, p. 649), identified the bird with Anas 

 punctata, Burchell ; and although it had been for more than 

 forty years in the quiet possession of the previous name, it 

 was registered by Mr. Sclater as Querquedula punctata, and 

 nobody found fault with that, although Querquedula hotten- 

 tota was the familiar name, and there was another Duck 

 {Anas castanea = Nettion castaneum) currently known under 

 the name Anas punctata. 



Yours &c.. 



Zoological Museum, Turin, T. Salvadori. 



April Kjtli, 1896. 



[Our reviewer regrets to have any controversy with Count 

 Salvadori, of whose splendid services to ornithology he has 

 the greatest appreciation. But his view is that " f abatis" 

 was not intended as a specific name by Latham, but onlv as 

 a Latin translation of ''Bean.'' This, he thinks, is sliown by 

 the fact that Latham did not use it (or even mention it) in 



* Burmeister, in 1856 (Sj'st. Uebers. Th. Bras. iii. p. 440), used the 

 same name for Urismafnra ferruginea. The name Anas ferruginea was 

 used in pre-Linnean times for Camrca rnfila. 



