40 REPORT — 1865. 



q. Names previously cancelled by the operation of § 6. — Some authors con- 

 sider that when a name has been reduced to a synonym by the operations of 

 the laws of priority, they are then at liberty to apply it at pleasure to any 

 new group which may be in want of a name. We consider, however, that 

 when a word has once been proposed in a given sense, and has afterwards 

 sunk into a synonym, it is far better to lay it aside for ever than to run the 

 risk of making confusion by re-issuing it with a new meaning attached. 



v. Specific names raised into generic. — It has sometimes been the practice 

 in subdividing an old genus to give to the lesser genera so formed, the names 

 of their respective typical species. Our Rule 13 authorize^ the forming a 

 new generic name in such cases ; but wc further wish to state our objections 

 to the practice altogether. Considering as we do that the original specific 

 names should as far as possible be held sacred, both on the grounds of justice 

 to their authors and of practical convenience to naturalists, we would strongly 

 dissuade from the further continuance of a practice which is gratuitous in 

 itself, and which involves the necessity of altering old names or making new 

 ones. 



We have now pointed out the principal rocks and shoals which lie in the 

 path of the nomenclator ; and it will be seen that the navigation through 

 them is by no means easy. The task of constructing a language which shall 

 supply the demands of scientific accuracy on the one hand, and of literary 

 elegance on the other, is not to be inconsiderately undertaken by unqualified 

 persons. Our nomenclature presents but too many flaws and inelegancics 

 already, and as the stern law of priority forbids their removal, it follows 

 that they must remain as monuments of the bad taste or bad scholarship of 

 their authors to the latest ages in which zoology shall be studied. 



[Families to end in idae, and Subfamilies in inse.] 



The practice suggested in the following proposition has been adopted by 

 many recent authors, and its simplicity and convenience is so great that we 

 strongly recommend its universal use. 



§ B. It is recommended that the assemblages of genera termed families 

 should be uniformly named by adding the termination idee to the name of the 

 earliest known, or most typically characterized genus in them ; and that their 

 subdivisions, termed subfamilies, should be similarly constructed, with the 

 termination ince. 



These words are formed by changing the last syllable of the genitive case 

 into idee or ince, as Strix, Strigis, Strigidce, Buceros, Bucerotis, Bucerotidce, 

 not Strividce, Buceridce. 



[The authority for a species, exclusive of the genus, to be followed by a 



distinctive expression.^ 

 The systematic names of zoology being still far from that state of fixity 

 which is the ultimate aim of the science, it is frequently necessary for correct 

 indication to append to them the name of the person on whose authority they 

 have been proposed. When the same person is authority both for the specific 

 and generic name, the case is very simple ; but when the specific name of 

 one author is annexed to the generic name of another, some difficulty occurs. 

 For example, the Muscicapa crinita of Linnams belongs to the modern genus 

 Tyrannus of Vieillot ; but Swainson was the first to apply the specific name 

 of Linnceus to the generic one of Vieillot. The question now arises, Whose 

 authority is to be quoted for the name Tyrannus crinitus ? The expression 

 Tyrannus crinitus, Linn., would imply what is untrue, for Linnaeus did not 



