FISHES 315 
“The Giintherian nomenclature was adopted by Prof. Hutton 
and Prof. Hector in the Catalogue of the Fishes of New Zealand. 
Later, Prof. Hutton revived several of Forster’s names previously 
generally neglected.” 
As Dr. Gill tells us, he abided by the Rules of the American 
Ornithologists’ Union ; since that time the law of absolute priority 
has been in vogue, but in deference to the wishes of many workers, 
it is now sought to secure some stability of nomenclature by fixing 
for all time certain names which, though admittedly not tenable 
under the strict priority law, have been so very generally used that 
no good purpose is secured by supplanting them. If censorship is 
ever passed on the Forster-Schneiderian names, I would use those 
of Forster, because, as Gill says, he was the original investigator, 
and, moreover, his names are in general use. In the meantime, the 
priority rule obtains, and certain defections in the Basic List are 
corrected below. 
It might be held that all names occurring in this connection 
should be credited to Schneider, but I think it may be conceded that 
where he adopted Forster’s names, the personal name of Forster 
should stand as the author of the species. It is true that the two 
writers placed the species in different genera (as 123—Cichla macro- 
ptera Bloch and Schneider ; Sctaena macroptera, Forster), but asnone 
of the genera is to-day admitted in connection with the species 
there assigned to it by either author, the question is unimportant. 
“Opinion, No. 5,’ expressed by the Commission of the Seventh 
International Zoological Congress, Boston, 1907, reads :—‘‘ A pre- 
Linnean name, inelegible because of its publication prior to 1758, 
does not become elegible simply by being cited or reprinted with its 
original diagnosis after 1757.” 
I had noted this as affecting Walbaum’s names used in the 
Basic List, and these names were actually later considered by 
the Commission, and embodied in ‘‘ Opinion, No. 21’ of the Eighth 
Congress, Graz, 1910; the statement being that Klein’s genera 
do not gain availability by reason of being quoted by Walbaum. 
The names of genera applied to Numbers 14, 20, and 24, are 
altered accordingly. 
