NOMENCLATURE 217 



later and semi-insane condition ? and according to 

 Reichenbach the species stands as Thonarsitorson dupetit- 

 thonarsei ! (see Cat. B. Br. Mus., xxi. p. 90). I would 

 sooner be a Scomber scomber. One of the most beautiful 

 birds of the Sandwich Islands bears the joint names of 

 two of the biggest rascals that ever landed upon them.* 



The practice of putting a small initial letter to a 

 specific name originated, it seems, with Strickland, and 

 for a long while indicated that whoever followed the 

 practice accepted (at least in spirit) the British Association 

 Rules for Nomenclature. Linnaeus himself never called 

 any animal (but only plants) after a man or woman, and 

 his practice was to write a substantive with a capital 

 letter and an adjective with a small one. A great many 

 people failed to see the difference and so confusion 

 arose, f 



With the comparatively recent practice of describing 

 sub-species and the introduction of trinomials, Newton 

 could never bring himself to agree. Doubtless the 

 enthusiasm of some of the modern naturalists outran 

 their discretion, but it is impossible for the working 

 zoologist to do without the use of trinomials altogether, 

 and one cannot suppose that in the course of time 

 Newton would not have seen the necessity himself. 



Finsch wrote to tell me of Hartert having made some 

 thirty or more subspecies of Alauda cristata, and now I 

 hear of nine of Loxia curvirostra. 



If I had not so much on my hands I think I should 

 do what might save future ornithologists a good deal of 

 trouble. You know that England and Wales have fifty- 

 two counties between them ; two of them, Rutland and 

 Middlesex, are ornithologically speaking of small account 

 and may be safely neglected, though the County Council 

 of Middlesex thinks not a little of its capabilities and 



* Letter to G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, October 12, 1898. 

 t Letter to William Evans, November 21, 1898. 



