'■Hand-list of British Birds.' 117 



We are now asked by the authors of the ' Hand-list ' to throw 

 this system over altogether, and to adopt in its place their 

 system^ which is founded on the rules of the International 

 Committee. Now, if there were any means of enforcing such 

 a change on all the ornithologists of the world, this would 

 indeed be a tempting offer. But experience shews us that 

 such an offer would not be accepted because of the enormous 

 changes it would necessitate in our usual nomenclature. 

 Who would like to call the Redwing " Turdus musicus," 

 or the Earn-Owl " lyto alba " ? Some of our friends 

 will reply " Oh ! but they will soon get used to it ! ^' A 

 few of the more ardent and energetic workers in orni- 

 thology would, no doubt, after a time get used to it. But 

 how about the large array of journalists, local list-makers, 

 and other occasional writers ? They would never adopt 

 the new system, nor even recognize their old favourites 

 disguised under their new names. 



In order to shew the changes which would have to be 

 made in the ' B. O. U. List ' to bring it into conformity with 

 the new ' Hand-list/ I have prepared the following Table, 

 which shews that out of 376 species included in the ' B.O.U. 

 List,' no less than 200 would require alteration. But I 

 doubt very much whether many of our writers on birds 

 would appreciate this step — or would use the new names ; 

 and, if this should turn out to be the case, it seems to me 

 that the introduction of the new names would only aggravate 

 the very evil which it is intended to remedy. 



I may now venture to remind those who maintain that no 

 attempt has been made to regulate the nomenclature 

 of birds, that besides the rules of the British Association 

 (which apply to the whole of Zoology) a special committee 

 of the British Ornithologists' Union was appointed in 1878 

 to which the task of preparing a ' List of British Birds ' was 

 entrusted. This committee, of which I had the honour of 

 being chairman, held as many as seventy-one meetings and 

 thoroughly discussed the name of every species, its chief 

 object being to ensure a uniform nomenclature for writers 



