104 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



affinities to old world genera, such as in the case of Ephthianura, 

 which is a thorough " Chat " in its deportment and mode of life. 

 In other instances, as in Pomatorhinus and Podargus, the Indian 

 names applied to aUied species were adopted. This procedure 

 is what, according to our critics in Adelaide, is " most confusing." 



As regards the second point, classification : the South Aus- 

 tralian " ornithologists " have evidently got beyond their depth. 

 It would not seem necessary to point out that one of the chief 

 objects of classification is to bring together groups and families 

 according to their natural and structural affinities. Gould, who 

 was a personal friend of my own, was eminently a pictorial 

 naturalist, and was not at all a systematist ; he adopted for con- 

 venience sake the most popular classification of his time, full of 

 errors and incongruities, and discarded years ago. In his 

 " Handbook " the Picarian birds are grouped, or I might say 

 " mixed up," with Passerine birds under the unwieldy order of 

 Vigors — Insessores. The truly passerine Swallow is classed 

 with the totally dissimilar and picarian Swift. In his Grallatores 

 he has combined the Herons with the Plovers — two groups of 

 birds absolutely distinct and in no way related ; and in the com- 

 prehensive order Natatores the Gulls, Petrels, Cormorants, and 

 Gannets are combined ! If the South Australian ornithologists 

 think for one moment that naturalists of the present day, who 

 think and inquire for themselves, are going to be content with 

 errors of this kind they are much mistaken. The classification 

 in the " Vernacular List " is that adopted in all modern works 

 where the Raptores are placed first. It is somewhat more 

 extended as regards the " orders " than that which I adopted in 

 my "Birds of Ceylon;" but these follow one another in a 

 natural sequence perfectly intelligible to all students. The 

 generic and specific names of the birds are up to date, and those 

 adopted in that great work " The Catalogue of Birds " (British 

 Museum), which will now form the basis of all future labour in 

 ornithology, and all Australian workers will be compelled 

 eventually to adopt them. 



I have to apologize for the length of this communication. I 

 find that I have perhaps gone into particulars as regards classi- 

 fication which are unnecessary for many of your readers. It 

 would, however, be a pity if such criticisms, based on a want of 

 knowledge, should go forth to the world of Australian naturalists 

 and prejudice those who had not studied the subject. It is to 

 be hoped that there are few workers, either " field " or scientific, 

 in Australia who are not alive to the necessity of keeping up 

 with the times, or content to remain in the state of " Rip van 

 Winkleism " which emanates from Adelaide. — I am, yours, 



W. V. LEGGE, 

 Author of " The Birds of Ceylon." 



Hobart, 8th September, 1899. 



