434 ORNITHOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 
views, while I own I should like to be spared his invectives 
and the trouble of noticing them. Most naturalists at some 
time of their life have taken nomenclatural fever: but it 
usually supervenes at an early age, when, as_ with other dis- 
eases incidental to youth, the patient, aided by good advice, 
speedily recovers from the attack. Uufortunately this is not 
Mr. Seebohm’s case, and he appears to be suffering from the 
malady in its severest form. What is worse is that Mr. 
Saunders seems to have caught the infection from him. How- 
ever, if these gentlemen are bent upon harassing their peace- 
able brother-ornithologists, it would be well if they would 
inform themselves more fully on the subject of which they 
treat. Ihave heard nomenclature compared to heraldry, and 
there is a story told by Horace Walpole of the rebuke ad- 
ministered to a king-at-arms who was said not to know his 
own “ silly business,” which might convey a lesson to nomen- 
clatural critics. 
ALFRED NEwron. 
MAGDALENE CoLLEeGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
22nd January 1883. 
