X PREFACE. 



shared by many of our colleagues. We contend that when 

 Linnaeus, or any other of the Fathers, gave a name to a bird, 

 no power on earth should be allowed to change it, by taking 

 their specific name and making it the title of a genus. The 

 Linnean name, when perfectly capable of identification, as it 

 generally is, should be held sacred, even when the result is 

 the duplication of the specific name, as with the Linnet, the 

 Fringilla cannabina of Linnaeus, and the Goldfinch, the Frin- 

 gilla carduelis of Linnaeus. In process of time both these 

 species have been separated (and rightly) from the genus 

 Fringilla, and the earliest generic names turn out to be 

 Cannabina of Boie, and Carduelis of Brisson. Hence the 

 names Carduelis carduelis (L.) and Cannabina ca?inabina (L.). 

 Nor is this system of nomenclature without one great advan- 

 tage, viz., that in nearly every case the duplicated name 

 descends upon the typical species of the genus, which be- 

 comes at once recognisable by such duplication of the generic 

 and specific names. 



Lastly, there is one other matter to which we would direct 

 the earnest attention of our brother ornithologists. It is a 

 question that can best be settled by a general conclave of 

 ornithologists, which should not be longer delayed ; and this 

 is the question of the alteration of generic names, about the 

 priority of which there can be little or no uncertainty. We 

 allude to some of the names brought to light by the diligent 

 research of our colleague Dr. Stejneger in America ; such, for 

 instance, as the adoption of Plectrophenax instead of Plectro- 

 phanes for the Snow-Buntings, and the name ^Egithalus instead 

 of Acredula for the Long-tailed Tits. It is much better to face 

 these changes fairly and squarely, and by their adoption, if they 

 are found to be correct, to introduce an uniform system of no- 

 menclature on both sides of the globe. 



In a work of the present size, published at a price which 



