19^9-] Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 153 



euormous winter ranj^e and may be found in any portion 

 of the Indian Empire. 



It will be most interesting if Mr. Whistler can obtain 

 some nesting birds, but I think there can be no doubt that 

 any obtained on the Baluchistan and Afghanistan borders 

 will be babylonicus. Farther east the matter is perhaps 

 open to doubt, and evidence is required to decide how far 

 this bird breeds. 



Yours truly^ 

 Upper Norwood, E. C. Stuart Baker. 



22 November, 1918. 



Mr. Harting and modern Nomenclature. 



Dear Sir, — I am surprised that Mr. Meade-Waldo 

 regards my letter as gratuitously insulting, and can only 

 infer that he has not read Mr. Hartiug^s letters in ' The 

 Ibis' and the ^ Field' from 1913 onwards. I merely wished 

 to point out that beyond the fact that Mr. Harting has 

 been a member of the Union for so many years, he has no 

 claim to dictate the policy of the Union in matters of 

 nomenclature. In order to support this view I have quoted 

 certain statements from his published works, only one of 

 which I believe Mr. Harting admits to be erroneous. 

 Readers of 'The Ibis' can draw their own conclusions on 

 these points, but I regard the quotation from an author's 

 works as fair material for criticism. 



In 'The Ibis,' 1918, p. 336, Mr. Harting complains of 

 the use of the name Ixobrychus on the ground that it is 

 not to be found in Watei house's 'Index Generum Avium.' 

 Is he aware that since 1889 Mr. C. W. Richmond has 

 shown that over 500 generic names were omitted in that 

 excellent pioneer work ? 



That Mr. Harting has done mnch useful work^ especially 

 on the "antiquarian" side of ornithology, I should be the 

 last to deny, and I am glad to say that I thoroughly 

 agree with what was written by him in 1872 on rules of 

 nomenclature. " Once admitting the propriety of such 



