^°'io^^''] Howe, The Acanthizo' or Tit-]Varhlers. 171 



and Eggs ") uses the sanu-. whiK' ("aniplK'll, Hall, and the Iv.A.O.U. 

 " Check-list " use Acanthiza only. In a more recent list (Mathews's 

 '* A List of the Birds of Australia," 1913) there is added the genus 

 Milligania. founded l)y the author in honoiu" of Mr. Alex. Milligan. 

 who did good work in Western Australia and other places in 

 describing new l)irds, particularly in regard to the Tit-Warblers. 



The ]Moblem now facing Australian ornithologists, however, is 

 the number of species that should be admitted and how best to 

 deal with the geographical races or sub-species. To my mind 

 Mathews has best dealt with this vexed question by trinomial 

 nomenclature ; but how many or which of his sub-species can 

 stand can only be determined by time and a large series of sldns. 

 Gould, Campbell, Hall, North, 'and the R.A.O.U. "Check-list" 

 Committee have all named sub-species at different times. 

 Binomial nomenclature for sub-species is scientifically wrong, and 

 conveys nothing to the student. John Gould, in his magnificent 

 work, "Birds of Austraha " (1848), figured Acanthiza piisilla, 

 A . diemenensis, A . eivingii, A . uropygialis, A . apicalis, A . pyrrho- 

 pygia, A. inornata, A. nana, A. lineata, A. reg^iloides, and A. 

 chrysorrhoa. In his " Handbook of the Birds of Australia," 

 vol. i., p. 365 (1865), he makes A. ewingii a synonym of A. 

 diemenensis, and places chrysorrhous and regnloides imder the 

 genus Geobasileus. 



Gould included Acanthiza magna, of Tasmania; but, as North 

 points out that, " although allied to both Acanthiza and Sericornis, 

 the distinctly curved bill alone would have been sufficient to 

 justify Colonel Legge in separating it from either and instituting 

 for its reception the genus Acanthornis, in which he places it 

 {Ibis, 1888, p. 93). In addition to other characters, it differs 

 from either in having long downy plumes on the lower back, 

 which are even more pronounced than in Pycnoptilus." 



Campbell (" Nests and Eggs," 1899) and Hall (" Key to the 

 Birds of Australia," 1906) gave the genus Acanthiza only, with 

 eleven species ; both these authorities listed Acanthiza squamata 

 as being closely allied to A . regnloides. 



In the R.A.O.U. " Check-list," 1912, the genus Acanthiza only 

 is used, and there appear fifteen species, A. mathewsi, A. flavi- 

 ventris, A. morgani, A. robnstirostris, and A. archibaldi being 

 added as species, and A . mastersi, A . pallida, A . modesta, A . 

 diemenensis, A. macularia, A. whitlocki, A. zietzi, A. albiventris, 

 and A. squamatus as sub-species. Again, A. squamatus is placed 

 as allied to A . regnloides. 



.Mathews's "A List of the Birds of Australia," 1913, has 3 genera, 

 13 species, and 37 sub-species. He adds A. tanami and Geobasileus 

 hedleyi as new species, Init differs from other authorities in 

 regard to A . squamatus, placing it as a sub-species of Geobasileus 

 chrysorrhous. Mr. S. W. Jackson, in The Emn, vol. viii., pp. 261 

 and 284, described the nest and eggs of A. squamata, and adds 

 that they (the nest and eggs) " closely resemble those of Acanthiza 

 regnloides." In a recent letter to me, Mr, H. L. White, of Bell- 



