130 EiDGWAY on Zoological Nomenclature. 



The question is one of the greatest importance to ornithologists, 

 and should be decided without unnecessary delay. In order to 

 show that it is likely, sooner or later, to be agitated abroad, the 

 following opinion of a writer* in a late number of "The Ibis" is 

 quoted : — 



" It is the boast of British ornithologists that their system of 

 nomenclature is binomial. When Linnaeus substituted a word 

 instead of a sentence to designate a species, he made an immense 

 stride toward simplicity of nomenclature. The practice of Brisson 

 and the earlier ornithologists, if it aimed at scientific accuracy, 

 failed in consequence of the raidtiplicity of facts with which it 

 had to deal. There seems, however, to be a tendency at the 

 present time to carry the idea of a binomial nomenclature to a 

 pedantic extreme. It is a common practice amongst ornithologists 

 to quote specific names without authorities, under the cover of ad- 

 hering to a strictly binomial nomenclature. In nine cases out of 

 ten no harm is done by omitting the authority, but in the tenth 

 case it leaves the precise species intended to be discriminated open 

 to doubt. Exactness is the foundation of all scientific research, and 

 the moment any doubt attaches to the meaning of a term, that 

 moment such term ceases to be scientific. The fact that the same 

 specific term has been applied by different ornithologists to different 

 species, makes the addition of the authority to the specific name in 

 many cases a necessity, — an unwelcome necessity, no doubt, to the 

 binomial nomenclator, but not the less an absolute necessity to the 

 truly scientific student. It would be well if the complication stopped 

 here. Unfortunately, in too many instances, a difference of opinion 

 exists amongst eminent ornithologists as to which species were in- 

 tended to be discriminated by certain terms made use of by some 

 writers. 



" For example : Saxicola stapazina is a name intended to dis- 

 criminate a certain species of Chat. Saxicola stajxizina (Linn.) 

 professes to restrict that name to the species of Chat to which Lin- 

 naeus gave the name of Motacilla stapazina ; but since the publica- 

 tion of Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' the title Saxicola stapazina 



so much to defend this system of nomenclature, which in truth needs no de- 

 fence, but to set forth the necessity of an agreement between ornithologists as to 

 the exact manner in which the subspecific term is to be combined with the 

 specific name. 



* Mr. H. Seebohm, in the Ibis, January, 1879, pp. 18-21. 



