700 Recenthi published OrnitJiulogical Work,<i. 



It is somewhat astonishing to realise that each member 

 of the Commit'ee had written lengthy papers and books 

 ]);:sed upon the nomenclature utilised in the ' Catalogue of 

 ]^irds of the British Museum/ yet collectively the Committee 

 has approved of the rejection in toto of the advances made 

 bv the autliors of these volumes upon Gould's work. 

 Though steadfastly maintaining that no disturbing innova- 

 tions should be permissible^ the Committee have produced 

 quite a novel list of names, resurrecting many Gouldian 

 names which have been consistently in disuse for the last 

 thirty to forty years. 



It is impossible to recommend the list to the use of 

 present-day workers, as no synonymy is given, and names 

 are apparently used for species with which they have been 

 shown to have no connection. Subspecies are rarely in- 

 cluded as such, but in most cases the List shows that the 

 Committee do not understand the term "subspecies" as it 

 is now commonly interpreted. Trinomials are not utilised, 

 as it was concluded their use would " endanger its [i. e. 

 ornithological study) existence in Australia.'"' After many 

 years' delay the leading Ornithologists of Britain have now 

 concluded that it is impossible to withstand the progress of 

 the trinomial method of naming birds, and the List now 

 being prepared by the Select Committee of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union will include subspecies named tri- 

 nomially. It will thus be seen that Australians will now 

 stand alone in rejecting trinomialism, but as Mathews, in 

 his current work on the ' Birds of Australia,' makes full 

 use of this system, the younger progressive element in 

 Australian ornithology will no doubt refer to his work for 

 a better understanding of their birds in connection with 

 those of otlier countries. A few points illustrative of the 

 preceding criticism may be appended. The Committee 

 re|)ort that they dealt with the validity of species and they 

 state : " During the evenings of the winter months they did 

 so"; in the present state of ornithological science it is 

 impossible to determine the validity of subspecies in winter 

 evenings, so that it is easily understood why such were not 



