314 Mr. H. J. Elwes on Modern [Ibis, 



We hiire three other distinct species of Oeeanodroma in 

 Japanese waters, as follows : — 



Oceanodroma leucorrhoa leucorrlioa (Vieillot) . 

 Hah. Kurile Is. and Hokkaido. 



Oceanodroma monorhis monorlds (Swinhoe). 

 Hah. Prov. Mutsu, N. Hondo ; Loo-Choo Is. ; ? North- 

 eastern Formosa. 



Oceanodroma fur cata (Gmelin). 



Hah. Kurile Is. ; Hokkaido ; Hondo (Sagami, Suraga, 

 Kobe). 



XVIII. — Modern Nomenclature and Suhspecies. 

 By H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., M.B.O.U. 



I HAVE long had it on my mind to write something on this 

 subject, which in Botany and Entomology, as well as Orni- 

 thology, is becoming one of the greatest difficulties which 

 any student has to cope with. If I wanted a good proof 

 that our branch of biology, which has been raised, largely 

 by British ornithologists in the pages of ' The Ibis/ to a 

 higher standard of knowledge than any other kindred study, 

 I cannot find a better one than the last numbers of this 

 Journal. Comparing it with a volume of the time when I 

 first joined the B. 0. U. in 18G6, I find that the whole scope 

 of our work is changed, and that some of the most active 

 and enthusiastic workers of the present time are devoting 

 themselves to the study of the minute variations of birds, 

 or to the attempt, in which there seems no prospect of 

 finality or agreement, to discover w^hat are the oldest names 

 of many of our long known species. 



As a proof that my opinion is not without support from 

 ornithologists of knowledge and repute, I will refer first to 

 a ()aper by our late President, Dr. Eagle Clarke, in the 

 ' Scottish Naturalist ' for September, 1912, on "The New 

 Nomenclature of British Birds." He recites briefly the 



