74 



NATURE 



[May 24, 1888 



these families of wading birds, and has made a special 

 point of the geographical distribution, a branch of the 

 subject which cannot fail to attract the interest of every 

 true naturalist. The introductory chapters treat of (1) 

 the " Classification," and (2) the " Evolution " of Birds. 

 Chapter III. details the author's views on the " Differ- 

 entiation of Species," and Chapter IV. deals with the 

 " Glacial Epoch." Chapters V. to IX. are devoted to the 

 migration of birds, and end with a scheme of classifi- 

 cation of the Charadriidce, Here are, in fact, enunciated 

 clearly all the articles of the Seebohm faith ! 



Evolutionists will probably join issue with Mr. Seebohm 

 on many of his conclusions, and geologists may have 

 something to say as to the possibility of glacial epochs 

 causing all that the author claims for them, but ornitho- 

 logists are scarcely likely to accept all his conclusions at 

 once. If we are to believe Mr. Seebohm, there is very 

 little progress being made in ornithological work in the 

 Old World, his sympathies being evidently more with the 

 American school of [ornithologists, for whose method of 

 nomenclature he has great respect. The non-adoption of 

 trinomial principles Mr. Seebohm attributes to the "con- 

 servative views of British ornithologists," though he is 

 mindful to add : " It is, however, only fair to remember 

 that much allowance must be made for the narrow, 

 because insular, views of British ornithologists." Shade 

 of Darwin ! The author has singled out the present writer 

 as one of those who seem to have had " no definite idea of 

 what they meant by a sub-species" ; but we may assure 

 Mr. Seebohm that in 1874 we did not use the term of 

 Gyps hispaniolensis as a sub-species of G. fidvus " in an 

 absolutely arbitrary manner," and we did not expect to 

 find our nomenclature discussed under the heading of a 

 " vague use of trinomials." Our object was to recognize 

 evident facts, but at the same time to retain a binomial 

 form of name for every bird, and the uncertainty which 

 still surrounds the American method of trinomial names 

 has not yet encouraged us to abandon the simpler and 

 decidedly less clumsy way of expression. Surely Mr. 

 Seebohm himself must admit that to have to speak of an 

 Oyster- catcher as Hccmatopus niger ater(p. 311) is not an 

 advantage, and this is only one result of pushing trinomial 

 nomenclature to its extreme. There are not wanting 

 signs that the advocates of the system are beginning to 

 groan under the weight of the burden they have placed 

 on their own shoulders ; and when the inevitable return to 

 the old simple path of binomial nomenclature takes place, 

 the only tangible result will have been to have weighted 

 the already frightful list of ornithological synonyms with 

 an additional number of long names. Even Mr. Seebohm 

 tries to modify the task of quotation of books by simplify- 

 ing some titles ; as, for instance, when he speaks of 

 " Coues and Co., Check-List " (p. 427), as if the authors 

 of the admirable A.O.U. " Check-List of North American 

 Birds" had formed themselves into a Limited Liability 

 Company for the manufacture of trinomials. 



Another point on which Mr. Seebohm may fairly be 

 called to task is for the number of new names which 

 his book propounds. On the back of the title-page he 

 quotes wise saws from the writings of John Ray (1878), 

 A. R. Wallace (1876), and Henry Seebohm (1883), con- 

 cerning the necessity of having simple names for birds, 

 and those generally understanded of the people. Here 



are his own words : — " I have adopted a scheme which 

 appears to me to be the most practical method of any 

 which have been suggested. It may not satisfy the re- 

 quirements of poetical justice ; but it is at least consistent 

 with common-sense. I adopt the name which has been 

 most used 'by previous writers. 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 : all my names are 

 auctorum plurimorum" Either our author had forgotten 

 that he had nailed this flag to the mast when he began the 

 present book, or the system of auctorum plurimorum does 

 not suit the Charadriidce j for the next student of these 

 birds will find that for the 235 species enumerated by Mr. 

 Seebohm, he is responsible for giving to sixty-five of 

 them names not previously in vogue ; and the number 

 would have been greater, had not Schlegel worked 

 somewhat on the same line of ideas, while many of the 

 trinomial combinations had been anticipated by " Coues 

 and Co." 



The book is profusely illustrated by woodcuts, showing 

 the specific characters of the different species, and these 

 will be invaluable to the student of these difficult birds. 

 In fact, no work has ever been so remarkably treated in 

 this respect, and it will be the book of reference for the 

 Charadriidce. for many years to come. The " Keys to the 

 Species " are also excellent, and Mr. Seebohm deserves 

 every credit for having given us such a complete arrange- 

 ment of some of the most tiresome of all the birds which 

 it falls to the lot of the ornithologist to determine. Every 

 naturalist who works out his facts as completely as the 

 author has done is permitted to account for them by any 

 theory which seems to him good ; and Mr. Seebohm's 

 arguments as to the origin of the species and their distri- 

 bution are not only examples of clever writing, but are 

 plausible enough if once the absolute certainty of the 

 Charadriidce having been driven from the Polar Basin by 

 successive glacial epochs is conceded. Many ornitho- 

 logists, however, will think that he carries his theory a 

 little too far, as, for instance, when he places the Avocets 

 and Stilts in one genus, Himantopus. How they origin- 

 ally came from the north, were split up in bands, became 

 some of them "semi-Stilts" and " semi-Avocets " ; how 

 they thought nothing of emigrating (cause not hinted 

 at) from the New World across the Atlantic to the Canary 

 Islands and Spain, or from the Chilian sub-region across 

 the Pacific to New Zealand and Australia — these and 

 many other interesting theories of distribution will reward 

 the student of Mr. Seebohm's book. Most ornithologists 

 will be more grateful for small mercies than Mr. Seebohm 

 is, and thank Dame Nature for having given them charac- 

 ters whereby in a few lines a genus can be written down. 

 Take, for instance, the members of the genus Esacus, 

 which Mr. Seebohm unites to CEdicnemus, and yet his 

 woodcuts show that the former genus has an enormous bill, 

 longer than the head itself— surely a genuine character of 

 importance. Then, again, Anarhynchus, with its asym- 

 metrical bill— confined to New Zealand — need not be 

 united to Charadriusj — and so on. With his theory of 

 distribution strong in his mind, the Avocets, with up-turned 

 bill, are united to the Stilts, with their straight bill, because 

 Mr. Seebohm has no doubts as to their common origin 

 in the distant past ; but looking at the present almost 





