120 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. III. 



species names have been so confused that we here use the 

 vernaculars, Cornish Chough and Alpine Chough, for easy 

 reference. Vieillot's name was founded on the Alpine Chough, 

 but in the Ornith. Brit., published in 1771, of which the author 

 is said to be Tunstall, but which carries no evidence as to its 

 authority on the book itself, the genus name Pyrrhocorax is 

 used for " P. graculus, the Cornish Chough or Daw, le 

 Coracias ou Choucas rouge/'' The International Commission 

 have decided that these names are valid, if recognisable by the 

 vernaculars above given, as described in Pennant's British 

 Zoology and Brisson's Ornithologia. In the latter place, Vol. 

 II., p. 3, a genus Coracia appears, the first species, and there- 

 fore, type by tautonymy, being called coracia.- This species 

 is the Cornish Chough and Brisson's name is the oldest for the 

 genus but has been rejected on account of the prior Coracias of 

 Linne, 1758. Consequently Pyrrhocorax (Tunstall), 1771, may 

 be used for the Cornish Chough. Most authorities have 

 generically separated the Cornish Chough from the Alpine 

 Chough, and it is admitted by all authorities that there is 

 very good reason for the generic distinction. We unhesitatingly 

 differentiate the two and we found that all the names commonly 

 recorded in this connection, save Vieillot's in 1816, were based 

 on the Cornish Chough. 



In the Zool. Anzeiger, Vol. XXVII., 1904, Poche dealt with 

 the Moehring generic names and proposed (p. 502) as a sub- 

 stitute for Pyrrhocorax Vieillot, 1816, not Pyrrhocorax Moehring, 

 1758, the new genus name Hellmayria. Moehring's names have 

 now been dismissed as not recognisable under the Laws, and 

 hence Hellmayria became a " useless synonym/' It is, under 

 the present facts, the correct genus name for the Alpine Chough, 

 an unexpected conclusion. — Hellmayria graculus. 



It may also be noted that Forster, in the Synopt. Cat. Brit. 

 Birds, p. 5, 1817, introduced the genus name Comix for two 

 species Corvus graculus and Corvus monedula L., the former 

 being the Cornish Chough, the latter the Jackdaw. The name 

 does not appear to have been allotted to either species, but 

 Richmond now includes Comix Koelreuter, 1767, writing: 



