]^o.4.\ COUES'S ORNITH. BIBLIOGRAPHY STRIGID^. 751 



ISTu. Howell, T. H. The Short-eared Owl [in Illinois]. <^ Forest and Stream, vii, 

 Nov. 30, 1876, p. 261. (See p. 342. ) 



1876. "J. B. S." The Arctic Owl [Nyctea nivea?]. < Forest and Stream, vii, Nov. 16, 

 1876, p. 230. 



1876. MiTFORD, R. Barn Owl and its Castings. <^ Zoologist, 2d ser., xi, Mar., 1876, p. 

 4832. 



Cf. op. ci«., p.4870. 



1876. MiTFORD, R. Owl-j)ellets : Correction of an Error. <^ Zoologist, 2d ser. , xi, Apr., 



1876, p. 4870. 

 Cf. op. (At., p. 4832. 



1876. Murray, H. B. Snowy Owl in Connty Fermanagh. <^ Zoologist, 2d ser., xi, 

 Apr., 1876, p. 4871. 



1876. Newton, A. On the Assignation of a Type to Linnsean Genera, with especial 

 reference to the Genus Strix. <^ This, 3d ser., vi, Jan., 1876, pp. 94-104. 



The opiuion exijressed by the writer (Yarr. Br. B., 4th ed., i, p. 150) having been demurred 

 to by Salvia (Ibis, 1875, pp. 66, 67) and Sharpe (ibid., pp. 324-328), thia occasion is taken to 

 reconsider the matter, and reiterate the views on nomenclature already expressed. It is an 

 important paper in its bearing on the general question, discussing certain principles touching 

 nomenclature at large, aside from the special case of Strix. The author has decided views 

 on the subject, and adheres to certain rules with such thorough consistency that he scarcely 

 provides for some emergencies which may arise, and appear to many persons to require 

 some elas'.icity of application of a principle he would make inflexible. He fortifies his posi' 

 tion with his usual cogency of argument and his conspicuous scholarly attainments. 



Prof. Newton finds that, among the 78 genera of Linn. S. iV., 3766, there are only 12 which 

 LinnfBus can be considered to have invented": lihamphastos, Buceros, Procellaria, Diomedea, 

 Phaeton, Palamedea, Mycteria, Gancroma, Parra, Didus, Menura, Pipra. He doubts not 

 that had LiuuiBus known our modern practice, he would have designated as the type of each 

 of his genera that species to which the name he adopted as generic had formerly been specif- 

 ically applied ; this seeming so obvious that he wonders at G-. R. Gray and others who invented 

 the arbitrary inile of selecting the first-named Linnajan species as the type of the genus 

 under which it stands. Ho finds it cuiious that so few Linncean genera, such as Tultur, Falco 

 and Psittacus (and 9 others) had been used by pre-Linna?an writers in a generic sense. The 

 authors whence Linnteus derived his genera are G-esner, Belon, Aldrovandus, Clusius, Johns- 

 ton, Brown, Barrere, Klein, Moohring, Brisson, and perhaps one or two others. 



Following out his principle, the author determines the types of 56 Linnsan genera to be as 

 follows (to save space I simply couple the generic and specific terms) : Strix stridula, Lanius 

 exoubitor, Buxihaga africana, Crotophaga ani, Corvus corax, Oriolus galbula, Paradisea apoda, 

 Bucco capensis, Cuculus canorus, Jynx torquilla, Ficus martins, Sitta europcea, Alcedo ispida, 

 Merops apiaster, TIpupa epops, Certhia familiaris, Trochilus colubris, Alca torda, Procellaria 

 pelagica, I>iom,edea exulans, Pelecanus onocrotalus, Plotus anhinga. Phaeton gelhereus, Bhyn- 

 chops nigra. Sterna hirundo, Phoenicopterits ruber, Platalea leucorodia, Mycteria americana, 

 Oancroma cochlearia, Ardea cinerea, Tantalus loculator, Peeurvirostra avocetta, Hcematopus 

 ostralegus, Fulica atra, Parra jacana, Ballus aquaticus, Psophia crepitans, Otis tarda, Struthio 

 camelus, Didus ineptus, Pavo cristatus, Meleagris gallopavo, Crax alector, Phasianits colchi- 

 cus, JV^itmida meleagris, Alaiida axvensis, /Stur^wts vulgaris, Turdus viscivorus, Atnpelis g&Tsra.- 

 lus, Loxia curvirostra, Tanagra tatao, Fringilla ccelebs, Muscicapa grisola, Pipra leucocilla, 

 Hirundo rustica, Caprimulgus europseus. 



Out of those 56 genera, only Strix and three or four others have, from the author's way of 

 regarding them, a type other than that commonly assigned to them. 



The case of Strix is then elaborately discussed, and the author maintains, in summing his 

 answer to bis critics, 



" (1) That the type, ac(;ording to the modem notion, of the Linneean genus Strix, is clearly 

 and indisputably S. stridula. 



" (2) That in subdividing a genus Brisson's right to afiix its original name to the portion of 

 it be chose is not afiected by his exceptional position as regards specific names, and that the 

 type of his restricted genus Strix is also S. stridula. 



"(3) That should ornithologists, in the teeth of the law, persist in disregarding this right, 

 there is a strong probability, which may at any moment become a certainty, of its being inde- 

 feasably established without reference to any exception whatever." 



1876. Nicholls, H. Abundance of the Shorteared Owl near Kingsbridge. <^ Zoolo- 

 gist, 2d ser. , xi , Mar . , 1876, pp. 4831, 4832. 



