Vlll INTRODUCTION. 



At the first Meeting of the Committee, held on November 8, 

 11)11, the following resolutions were passed : 



(1) That the arrangement of the first ' List of British 



Birds' be accepted as the basis of the second edition, 

 subject to such alterations as may be considered 

 necessary. 



(2) That the tenth edition of Linnaeus' ' Systema Naturae * 



be taken as the basis of priority except (i.) when it 

 entails the transference of well-known names, either 

 generic or specific, from one species to another, such 

 as Turdus musicus to the Redwing, Chelidon to the 

 Swallow ; (ii.) when it entails the alteration of a 

 name that has been in common use for many years, 

 the changing of which would lead to confusion, 

 such as Ruticilla oclirurus gibraltariensis for R. titys. 



(3) That in cases where a specific name has been subse- 

 quently made into a generic name, such specific name 

 must not be replaced, but must still stand : e. g. Perdix 

 perdix for Perdix cinerea. 



(4) That under the binomial headings of the species be 

 added in trinomials the names of the races recognised 

 by the Committee as occurring in the British Islands. 



(5) That the Secretary should keep a list of "nomina 



conservanda/' and that this list be printed separately 

 at the end of the general List. 



Many meetings of the Committee have been held, at 

 which the old list was carefully revised and brought up 

 to date, while a certain number of doubtful questions, such 

 as the etymology and distribution, have been decided by 

 correspondence, as it has been found very difficult to secure 

 full meetings of the Committee. The work of preparing 

 the various portions of the List has been undertaken by 



