Dr. E. Hartert — Some Anti criticisms. 549 



are less particular from altering the gender of some of the 

 specific terms. 



It would seem that the Editors of ' The Ibis ' have only- 

 glanced at some of the headings of my species and sub- 

 species when they say that " the main point of the book is 

 that the author calls upon us virtually to give up the binomial 

 system/' Alas ! poor book, it had better have remained un- 

 written if there were no other points of more importance in 

 it ; but I am not modest enough to agree with the Editors 

 of l The Ibis.' Every genus in my book contains a iC key " 

 to the species which I recognise as such, and the names of 

 all of them are binomial ! Of course, my " Corvus corax" 

 includes all the various races of the Raven, also the North 

 European race, Corvus corax corax. It is, in my opinion, 

 quite illogical to call one race out of half a dozen by two 

 names, merely because it was the one named first, all the 

 rest by three, merely because they were named subsequently. 

 To repeat the specific name is decidedly simpler than any 

 other method ; I have tried them all, and my method is 

 rapidly gaining ground : in the last ornithological number 

 of the 'Tierreich'' it is adopted, the Americans (Ridgway) 

 have at last accepted it, &c. Moreover, of the 391 forms 

 described in the first two parts of my book, about 120 are 

 called by binomials, all those of which no geographical races 

 are known. Surely that is not giving up the binomial 

 system ! On the contrary, I retain it throughout, merely 

 supplementing it by trinomials where it is desirable. 



For " joining together in one genus the Goldfinches, 

 Siskins, Redpolls, and Linnets" I have given full reasons, 

 showing the fallacy of former treatments. Of course the 

 Editors of ' The Ibis ' have the right to stick to their own 

 ideas — and ideas about genera are generally differently 

 interpreted and changeable, — but they are in error if they 

 believe that in this case they have caught me slipping. I 

 have not overlooked the generic name Carduelis. They 

 ascribe it to " Schaef," but the author's name is not 

 " Schaef," but " Schaeffer," abbreviated into " Schaeff." 

 according to custom. Though he was certainly not a sheep 



ser. viii. — vol. iv. 2r 



