332 Recent Literature. Tay 
much time and labor. Indeed it may well be taken as a model for a State 
list. We note, however, that the Wheatear (Saxzcola enanthe) is referred 
to as “ A European species, straggling to New England, and once taken 
at Boulder,’ Colorado, whereas it is a not uncommon bird in Greenland, 
Labrador, and other parts of Arctic America. We regret to see, however, 
thatin the section devoted to the history of Colorado Ornithology, 
generic names are printed with a lower case initial letter, which is not 
only unusual and unsightly, but renders it much more difficult to individ- 
ualize quickly the names of the species in a running glance through the 
paragraphs. For this it is hoped the author is not responsible. Typo- 
graphical errors are scarce, particularly in technical names, and the paper 
as a whole is very creditably printed. 
The announcement is made that copies may be had gratuitously on 
application to the Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Fort 
Collins, Colorado. —J. A. A. 
Miller on Construction of Scientific Names.'— This paper is designed, 
as stated in a note by the publication committee of the California Academy 
of Sciences, as ‘‘a comprehensive, and at the same time readily accessible 
and reliable, treatise on the rules that should govern the selection and 
formation of scientific names derived from Greek and Latin,” the com- 
mittee believing that such a treatise would prove useful to local botanists 
and zodlogists of Western North America for many years to come; and 
they might well have added, of Eastern North America as well. Says 
the author: “Various scientific writers have arbitrarily departed from 
the philologically correct method of nomenclature established by Lin- 
nus; moreover some difference of opinion now prevails in regard to 
the formation, gender and inflection of certain New Latin words derived 
from the Greek. Definite rules have been wanting, or at least not readily 
available. Accordingly, at Dr. Jordan’s request, and with his kind assist- 
ance, I have undertaken to formulate a set of rules based upon philological 
principles and at the same time agreeing with the practice of consistent 
nomenclators. Ultra-purism, however, as the writing of ai and oi for the 
Greek at and ot or of k for Greek x, shall have no more consideration 
than the philological monstrosities produced by a Rafinesque or a 
Swainson.” 
The rules given by Prof. Miller are clear and concise, and will certainly 
be welcome to a large proportion of at least the younger systematists who 
find themselves called upon now and then to provide names for new 
genera and species or even higher groups. The rules are intended to 
give directions as to how to construct properly names derived from Greek 
and Latin, in future work; they are not intended to be retroactive, for 
1 Scientific Names of Latin and Greek Derivation. By Walter Miller, Pro- 
fessor of Classical Philology, Leland Stanford Jr. University. Proc. California 
Academy of Sciences, 3d. Ser., Vol. I, No. 3, pp. 115-143. 
