1S91.] Recctif Lileraturc. C)C) 



Seebohm's Birds of the Japanese Empire. * — As a fitting conclusion 

 to his numerous and vaUiable contributions to Japanese ornithology Mr. 

 Seebohm has issued a handsome volume which intends to be a representa- 

 tion of the present status of theavif^iuna ofjapan. His first labor in this field 

 coinmenced eleven years ago with a paper entitled 'Remarks on Messrs. 

 Blakiston and Fryer's Catalogue of the Birds of Japan' (Ibis, 1879, pp. 

 18-43), ^""^ ^'^^ book before us may — in some respects at least — be regarded 

 as a further elaboration of that same 'Catalogue' which started a new era 

 in Japanese ornithology- This being the case, it is highly to be regretted 

 that Mr. Seebohm has not found it necessary to refer to the numbering 

 and nomenclature of Blakiston and Fryer's catalogue in each special 

 case, the more so since he has deemed a synonymy of the species entire- 

 ly superfluous. The omission is particularly unfortunate, for it will be 

 remembered that Mr. Seebohm's rules of nomenclature, as well as their 

 enforcement and application, are entirely his own, and quite unique. I 

 shall onl\' mention a few examples. Mr. Seebohm is, I believe, the inven- 

 tor of the now famous '■auctoriim fliirimorum' principle which was in- 

 tended to strike terror to the hearts of those authors who believe in an 

 inflexible law of priority. But like most lawmaker.s, Mr. Seebohm does 

 not feel himself bound by his own laws. If he can discover ("rake up" is 

 his own expression, Br. B. Eggs, I, p. xix) an old and musty name, then 

 the ^anctoruin plurimoruin' appellation is flung to the winds, and forgotten 

 is the proud announceinent : "It is not necessary for me to encumber my 

 nomenclature with a third name, either to denote the species to which it 

 refers, or to flatter the vanity of the author who described it." We have 

 once before called attention to this with regard to Diomedca albatrus, 

 and we are again forcibly reminded of it by finding the Sacred Crane 

 of fupan called Grits japoneiisis. Fancy Mr. Seebohm "raking up" one 

 of Philip Statins Miiller's names! But Mr. Seebohm is nothing, if not 

 inconsistent. In 18S3-1885 he published a most delightful 'History of 

 British Birds' in three volumes. In this he gives a very elaborate and, 

 in most cases, very accurate synonymy of every English bird, even the 

 most common ones. Looking over the English ornithological literature 

 one is almost tempted to regard such a proceeding as equivalent to carry- 

 ing coals to Newcastle. Five years later, when treating of the compara- 

 tively unknown birds of Japan, presumably for the benefit of readers who 

 have but little opportunity to settle the questions of synonymy for them- 

 selves, he finds these lists "useless." How is the ornithological student 

 in Japan, who has no other book of reference than Seebohm's, to locate 

 such names as Cuculus telephottus, Corvus orientalis, Dryobates leucotos, 

 Columba intermedia, Turtur douraca toiquatus, etc., etc., which occur 

 in other publications on Japanese ornithology? These synonymical lists 

 would certainly be much more useful in a work on the 'Birds of the Jap- 

 anese Empire,' than the large woodcuts and descriptions of the deep 



*The Birds | of the Japanese Empire | By | Henry Seebohm | London: R. H. Por- 

 ter. I i8go. 8vo., pp. xxiv+386, with map and figures in the text. 



