Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 337 



au iiltra-prioi'itarian. He maintained that " the stern Law 

 of Priority " must be obeyed, whatever the consequences. 

 Neither Strickland nor the Stricklandian Code can be 

 blamed for the present state of confusion, but rather the 

 so-called followers, who never read or recognized the Code 

 save when it suited their convenience. This was pointed 

 out by one of its opponents, who gibed that it " was more 

 honoured in the breach than in the observance." 



The only differences between the Stricklandian Code and 

 the International Rules are in minor points, wherein agree- 

 ment has now been arrived at even by the '' select com- 

 mittee^' of the British Ornithologists' Union. I refer to 

 the acceptance of the tenth edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' 

 of Linne in place of the twelfth edition accepted in the 

 Stricklandian Code, and the recognition of " toutonyms.^' 

 Whether the former change was advisable may be still a 

 moot point, but it has now become universally recognized, so 

 that no further argument is necessary. 



Dr. Sclater's plea for '' journalists, local list-makers, and 

 other occasional writers" against the wishes of the 

 '^ working ornithologists," who will " soon get used to it," 

 can scarcely be considered worthy of criticism, as surely 

 scientific work must not be retarded on account of the whim 

 of a journalist or local list-maker. I would, therefore, 

 conclude that, seriously speaking, little fault has been found 

 with the "New Hand-List" by Dr. Sclater, but rather that 

 his Commentary is simply a review of it from the view-point 

 of one of the older workers. When it is remembered that 

 the comparison is with a List published thirty years ago, 

 and which was in general disuse ten years afterwards, the 

 extraordinary number of changes bears a very large 

 discount. 



Regarding the addition of the author of a species, I agree 

 with Dr. Sclater that it seems unnecessary when the original 

 reference is also given, but otherwise it should always be 

 quoted. My own criticism of the Hand-List would have been 

 directed against the very wide limits of the genera used, the 



