NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 463 
Cypselus caudacutus, Charadrius fulvus, and many others, are 
omitted entirely from the List, although, according to Mr. Wharton’s 
own definition, they ought to be “ rightly considered British,” since 
they have “at least once, beyond doubt, occurred in a truly wild 
state within the area of the British Isles.” 
‘In regard to the specific names adopted we have not much 
criticism to offer, because in most instances, as we have already 
remarked, the rules for zoological nomenclature have been strictly 
applied, and priority has been given to the oldest name to which 
a recognisable description has been attached. We may, however, . 
point out one or two instances in which we consider it possible that 
Mr. Wharton may be mistaken. Is not the Firecrest Regulus igni- 
capillus of Jenyns, not Brehm? The first-named naturalist, in his 
‘Manual of British Vertebrate Animals,’ p. 113, certainly writes, 
“ R. ignicapillus, nobis.” Should not Falco peregrinus, Tunstall, 
be F. peregrinus, Gmelin ?—unless Tunstall, in his ‘Ornithologia 
Britannica,’ 1771, of which we have never seen a copy, forestalled 
Gmelin’s description of this species, which was not published 
until 1778. 
We should like to know Mr. Wharton’s reasons for identifying 
the Spotted Eagle, which has occurred half-a-dozen times in this 
country, with the Aquila clanga of Pallas, instead of with the 
smaller Aguila nevia of Gmelin, with which it has generally been 
identified by British naturalists. Sterna macrura, Naumann, as 
Mr. Wharton has it, ought surely to be Sterna hirundo, Linneus ; 
and Alca arra of Pallas is an older name for Briinnich’s Guillemot 
than A. brunnichi of Sabine. We may point out, too, that the 
American Little Stint, which has accidentally occurred in this 
country on two occasions, is not, as Mr. Wharton supposes, the 
“ Semipalmated Sandpiper,” Hreunetes pusillus (Linneus), but the 
smaller species, with toes cleft to the base, upon which Wilson, 
in 1818, bestowed the name of Tringa pusilla, and which many 
ornithologists call minutilla, Vieillot, although erroneously so, for 
Vieillot’s name was not proposed until 1819. 
Did space permit we might extend ogr criticisms considerably ; 
but we think enough has been said to show that, while Mr. Wharton 
certainly merits the gratitude of British ornithologists for the great 
pains which he has evidently bestowed upon the undertaking, his 
‘List of British Birds’ is still not quite so perfect a one as we may 
hope some day to see published. 
