ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 377 



remembered that all species are equal, and should therefore 

 be written all alike. We suggest, then, that 



§0. Specific names should always be written with a small 

 initial letter, even when derived from persons or places, and 

 generic names should be alwa} 7 s written with a capital. 



\The authority for a species, exclusive of the genus, to be follow- 

 ed 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 cne author is annexed to the generic name 

 of another, some difficulty occurs. For example, the Muscicapa 

 crinita of Linnaeus belongs to the modern genus Tyrannus 

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

 name of Linnaeus 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 use the term 

 Tyrannus; and Tyrannus crinitus, Vieill., is equally incorrect, for 

 Vieillot did not adopt the name crinitus. If we call it Tyran- 

 nus crinitus, S\\\, it would imply that Swainson was the 

 first to describe the species, and Linnaeus would be robbed 

 of his due credit. If we term it Tyrannus, Vieill., crinitus, 

 Liun., we use a form which, though exprassing the facts correct- 

 ly, and therefore not without advantage in particular cases where 

 great exactness is required, is yet too lengthy and inconvenient 

 to be used with ease and rapidity. Of the three persons con- 

 cerned with the construction of a binomial title in the case 

 before us, we conceive that the author who first describes and 

 names a species which forms the ground-work of later o-enerali- 

 zations, possesses a higher claim to have his name recorded 

 than he who afterwards defines a genus which is found to 

 embrace that species, or who may be the mere accidental 

 means of bringing the generic and specific names into contact. 

 By giving the authority for the specific name in preference to 

 all others, the inquirer is referred directly to the origiual des- 

 cription, habitat, &c, of the species, and is at the same time 

 reminded of the date of its discovery ; while genera, beino- 

 less numerous than species, may be carried in the memory, 

 or referred to in systematic works without the necessity of 

 perpetually quoting their authorities. The most simple mode 



