THE ZooLoGistT—OcTOBER, 1875. 4637 
On certain Neglected Subjects of Ornithological Investigation. 
By Professor Newton, M.A., F.R.S. 
(Read at the Meeting of the British Association at Bristol, 26th August, 1875, 
and contributed by the Author.) 
Ir usually happens when anyone attempts to review the position 
of the science to which he is attached that he is inclined to believe 
it to be altogether in a very flourishing state. We do, I admit, occa- 
sionally meet with some few men who indulge in a “Jeremiad;” 
but these are commonly believed to be ill-conditioned persons, or 
prophets in spirit like Cassandra, only, unlike her, not to be justified 
by the event, and their predictions and lamentations are most 
generally treated as they deserve. Thus, say in the matter of 
zoological nomenclature, when anyone has tried to carry out the 
rules of that abstruse branch of so-called Science which have 
received the authority of this Association, and in so doing has to 
use another name for a common animal than that with which 
people have grown familiar, somebody, reviewing the matter, is 
sure to begin wringing his hands and saying that if changes such 
as this are made the whole Science of Zoology will go to the bad 
as fast as itcan. However, we need not be much disconcerted by 
such signs of woe, and, at any rate, there will be no occasion for 
anyone now present to exhibit them in consequence of what I 
am going to say. I do not intrude myself upon your notice as a 
foreboder of evil, and I am very hopeful of the future of Ornithology. 
My only fear (I will not call it a complaint) is, that we seem to have 
been getting of late rather deeply into certain well-worn ruts, to 
the abandonment of other tracks upon which we ought equally to 
travel, and, by your favour, I shall try to show how we may amongst 
us contrive to cover more ground in our onward progress than we 
do at present. 
It has been my fate recently to have to “take stock” of our 
ornithological knowledge in a way that I never had occasion to do 
before. The result has been, on the whole, not otherwise than 
gratifying. Some branches of the study have, within the last fifteen 
-years, received enormous encouragement from the new views as to 
Evolution which have been promulgated within that period; but 
others there are which seem to have remained absolutely in stalu 
quo ante. If I am not mistaken, it is a long time since anyone, in 
SECOND SERILS—VOL. x. 3B 
