660 Letters, Extracts, and Notices. 



XLYI. — Letters, Extracts, and Notices. 



We have received the following letters addressed to " The 

 Editors of < The Ibis ' " :— 



Sirs, — After reading your notice of the first number of 

 Mr. Hartert's * Palsearctic Avifauna' (above, pp. 291-293), 

 I feel anxious to state my full accordance with your views, 

 especially as regards ".subspecies" and "trinomials." More- 

 over, I am sure that your views will obtain support not 

 only among all the workers of the "old school," but also 

 from all Ornithologists who foresee serious evil in the 

 constantly growing multiplication of named forms. In this 

 sense the well-known Dutch Ornithologist, Baron R. Snouck- 

 aert van Schauburg, who has an excellent knowledge of 

 Palsearctic birds, writes to me in regard to Hartert's new 

 work : — "One feels almost dizzy in contemplating the exces- 

 sive increase of ' subspecies/ of which many are by no 

 means sharply defined and perhaps such as had better not 

 have been characterised at all. For even a ' subspecies ' 

 ought to be recognisable without having to look at the 

 locality noted on the label." With this load of always 

 increasing subspecies, even our Pahearctic birds are now 

 likely to be overwhelmed, how much more the exotic 

 forms, if the splitting into " subspecies " goes on at the rate 

 now practised by the modern school. Mr. Oberholser, for 

 example, divides Bubo virginianus into 17, and Thryothonts 

 musculus into 15 subspecies — the number to follow seems to 

 be incalculable. And besides the burden of the three 

 names, we find among them such delightful compounds as 

 " Thouarsitreron dupetit- thouarsi dupetit - thouarsi " and 

 " Pternistes teucoscepus muhamed -ben- abdnHah" of Er- 

 langer! This is, indeed, no encouragement to students of 

 ornithology, and still less so when they find out that the 

 masters of the " new school " are by no means in full 

 accordance as regards the value of their subspecies. Thus, 

 for example, of the five " subspecies " of Astragalinus, lately 

 characterised by Ridgway, three have already been rejected 

 by Oberholser, and according to Hartert Certhia familiaris 



