Recently published Ornithological Harks. 291 



holland'ue. with peculiarly adherent down ; and a reproduction 

 of a drawing of Pygoscelis adelice. 



39. Haflert on the Palcearctic Avifauna. 



[Die Viigel cler palaarktischen Fauna. Systematische Uebersicht^der 

 in Europa, Nord-Asien imd der Mittelmeerregionen vorkommenden 

 Vogel. Von Ernst Hartert. Heft I. Berlin: Friedlander. 8vo. Pp.112, 

 November 1903.] 



We have lately spoken in favourable terms of Mr. Dresser's 

 ' Manual of Palaearctic Birds/ and praised his steadfast 

 adherence to the old-fashioned binomial system of nomen- 

 clature. We now have to record the commencement of 

 another work on the same subject, in which one of our 

 leading authorities on Birds puts forward trinomialism as 

 " the better way/ 7 and proposes to give nearly every species 

 three names, or, perhaps, we may even say four, if, as seems 

 to be the case, the authority is always to be added to the 

 name itself. Mr. Hartert calls the Raven " Corvus cor ax 

 corax h.," Mr. Dresser calls it " Corvus corax.'' In spite 

 of Mr. Hartert's ingenious arguments in favour of the new 

 plan, we prefer the simpler and shorter name. We do not, 

 for a moment, say that local forms (for which by far the 

 best and most convenient name is " subspecies ") do not 

 exist in Nature. Even Mr. Dresser recognises them in 

 certain cases, such as that of the Dipper [Cinclus), of which, 

 in his 'Manual/ ten subspecies are enumerated. But he 

 does not give these ten subspecies the same rank as the full 

 species ; he subordinates them to the typical form *, and 

 prints their names in smaller type. In Mr. Hartert's 

 mode of treatment the subspecies are given exactly the 

 same rank as the main species, which is only recognisable 

 by the repetition of the second name, " Corvus corax corax." 

 We must say that we much prefer the plan of adding 



* We observe that Mr. Dresser makes Cinclus ntelanogaster the 

 typical form of the species. But here, Ave think, he is wrong. The 

 earliest specific name assigned to the Stumus cinclus of Linnaeus was 

 aquaticus of Bechstein ; and, as we are not tautonymists, the typical 

 Dipper should, in our opinion, be called Ci?ic!us aquaticus, and the 

 .Scandinavian and other local forms should be treated as subspecies — 

 Cinclus aquaticus melanogastcr, &c. 



