REMARKS ON THE GENUS PERICROCOTUS. 181 



Still worse is the existing* diversity of practice as to what 

 does and does not, or should or should not, constitute a distinct 

 genus ; and no one who has carefully studied the latest and 

 greatest work on the Zoological Provinces of the world, * can 

 fail to have observed in any province, of which he possesses a 

 special knowledge, how greatly this confusing diversity of 

 generic value has vitiated the talented author's conclusions. 



But to return to peregrinus. The extraordinary diversity 

 of its more exti-eme forms, and the diversity of practice that 

 prevails as to the specific separation of such forms, makes it 

 of some interest to try and ascertain which of the existing 

 names apply to which form. 



Linnaeus' name peregrinus is clearly founded on a specimen — 

 at any rate he quotes no previous authority. The diagnosis 

 uropygia coccineo, corpore cinereo, subtus alio" does well 

 enough for a female of the northern race, and the description 

 more clearly fixes both race and sex. 



'' Cinereum, subtus totum album. Uropygium coccineum. 

 Remiges fusc^e. Rectrices omnes nigrce, exceptis quatuor in- 

 termediis, postice oblique luteis, ita tamen id luteus color 

 prcevaleat in 5,5, non vero in 6,6." 



Cinnamomea of Lin. seems to me very doubtfully applicable. 

 The diagnosis is absolutely wrong. 



" Cana, subtus coccinea, gula nigra, remigibus quatuor pri- 

 mis basi rubris." 



The first four quills are not red at their bases, and the above 

 can be translated in no other way. The description says the 

 same, but in the description by changing the place of a comma, 

 a different interpretation is open to us, more in accordance 

 with the facts, and it is possible that having written the descrip- 

 tion, from a specimen, the accidental omission of a comma, 

 later led him when abstracting the diagnosis to forget his own 

 original meaning. 



u Corpus supra canum ; Gula nigra. Cocanea sunt pectus, 

 abdomen, uropygium. Remiges nigra, exceptis quatuor primis 

 basi rubris, nnde macula alarum rubra, in altero se.ru. Rec- 

 trices nigra, sed quatuor intermedia latere oblique ru/a." 



By inserting a comma after "primis" we shall get a correct 

 description, but one that is distinctly at variance with the 

 diagnosis. But then I do not think that in the brightest south- 

 ern specimens, the abdomen can pi'operly be called coccineus, 

 and in no male ( Gula nigra) in which the abdomen makes any 

 approach to this, can the upper surface be described as cana. 



* The Geographical Distribution of Animals, by Alfred Russel Wallace— 

 Macmillaa & Co., Loudon. 2 vols, 1376. 



