55:2 Count T. Salvador! on Tanysiptera dea. 



aud there is no mention whatever of a superciliary whitish 

 stripe. 



I should much like to know whether the supporters of 

 Linnets tenth edition will follow it out and use T. musicus for 

 the Redwing and T. iliacus for the Song-Thrush *. As for 

 using the names Tardus bragi for the Song-Thrush and 

 Turdus borealis for the Redwing, as suggested by Mr. Kleiu- 

 schmidt (/. c), I can only express the hope that the proposal 

 will be considered utterly destitute of good sense. 



There is another obvious instauce of the inconvenience of 

 using the tenth edition of Rhine's ' Systema Naturae' instead 

 of the twelfth, to which I will now advert. Dr. Hartert, 

 in ' Novitates Zoologicse ' (x. p. 48, 1903), has proposed to 

 discard the good old name " Tanysiptera dea (Linn.)/' which, 

 as he admits, I have shewn (Orn. Rap. e Mol. i. p. 435) must 

 be used for the species of the genus Tanysiptera that lives 

 in Amboina aud Ceram. Linne* s Alcedo dea (Syst. Nat. 

 17G<>, p. 181) was established on the Ispida tematana of 

 Brisson (Orn. iv. p. 525, t. 40. f. 2), which is unmistakably 



* This paper was written before the issue of the July number of the 

 1 Ibis,' where (pp. 431, 4-°>2) my friend Dr. Hartert has very boldly used 

 Tardus musicus for the Redwing and Turdus iliacus for the Song- 

 Thrush. I must say that if the practice of beginning our nomenclature 

 from the tenth edition of the ' Systema ' is to have the consequence of 

 upsetting the names of some of the best-known species of birds, we must 

 give up in despair any expectation of stability in our nomenclature. In 

 this particular case Dr. Hartert ought not to have ignored the fact that the 

 correction of the mistake which occurred in the tenth edition was made 

 by Linne himself in the twelfth. Dr. Hartert says that " unfortunately 

 the two names have since ^Liune"s tenth edition] been reversed, and that 

 it is time that this old error should be rectified and the names used in 

 their original sense." I should rather say that fortunately the two 

 names have been reversed by Linne himself in the twelfth edition 

 according to their real meaning, and that the correction of the mistake 

 should be accepted in accordance with Linne's intention. If Dr. Hartert 

 made a mistake in a paper in the ' Novitates Zoological,' and corrected 

 it in a subsequent number, would he like to be held to his former error ? 

 or would it be reasonable to do so ? 



