118 Dr. P. L. Sclater on the neia 



iu ' The Ibis.' It may well claim to have succeeded in this 

 object, as until the last few years the names used by the 

 leading writers on British Birds (Yarrell, Newton, Saunders, 

 and others) were nearly the same as those of the ' B. O. U. 

 List/ After the long interval of nearly thirty years it was 

 obvious that some changes would be necessary, but not such 

 treatment as would revolutionize the whole system previously 

 adopted. Accordingly, at the General Meeting of the 

 B. O. U. in 1910 a "select" committee was appointed to 

 prepare a new edition of our ' List of British Birds,' and 

 before long we may hope to have the benefit of its labours 

 on this important subject.'^ 



The number of species and subspecies of British birds 

 allowed in the ' Hand-list ' is 469. The species are not 

 numbered, but their names are printed in large type, and 

 have no '' authority" added to their generic and specific 

 titles. But the '^ authority " is added in the case of the 

 subspecies, so that every subspecies has four names. I think 

 it would have been better to have omitted the authority 

 altogether in the subspecies. It is not correct to quote the 

 Little Tern (for example) as " Sterna mhiuta miniita L.," for 

 Linnseus never gave it any such name — he called it simply 

 " Sterna minuta.'^ This process is still more objectionable 

 in cases where there are no subspecies, ^'hat can be the use 

 of calling the IIoney-Buzzard " Pernis apivorus apivoms " ? 

 and in attributing the duplication of the specific term to 

 Linnseus, who certainly never gave it that name. There are 

 many other similar cases in the synonymy. 



Before concluding my remarks I wish to say that, so far 

 as I am able to judge, the new * Hand-list ' has been 

 well and carefully prepared. I have tried many of the 

 references, and have found them correct. Moreover, all the 

 most recent accessions to the British list are properly 

 entered, so that it will be of much use to all students of 

 British ornithology, even though they may not agree with 

 its nomenclature. 



* See the reports of the General Meetings, ' Ibis,' 1911, p. 553, and 

 1912, p. 629. 



