TAXONOMY 265 



The code now almost universally in use is the International Code of 

 Zoological Nomenclature, adopted by the International Zoological Congress 

 and governed through a Commission on Nomenclature. 



The International Code. — Some of the essential features of the Inter- 

 national Code are as follows. The first name proposed for a genus or 

 species prevails on the condition that it was published and accompanied 

 by an adequate description, definition or indication, and that the author 

 has applied the principles of binomial nomenclature. This is the so-called 

 law of priority. The tenth edition of the Systema Naturae of Linnaeus is 

 the basis of the nomenclature. The author of a genus or species is the 

 person who first publishes the name in connection with a definition, in- 

 dication or description, and his name in full or abbreviated is given with 

 the name; thus, Bascanion anthonyi Stejneger. In citations the generic 

 name of an animal is written with a capital letter, the specific and sub- 

 specific name without initial capital letter. The name of the author 

 follows the specific name (or subspecific name if there is one) without 

 intervening punctuation. If a species is transferred to a genus other 

 than the one under which it was first described, or if the name of a genus 

 is changed, the author's name is included in parentheses. For example, 

 Bascanion anthonyi Stejneger should now be written Coluber anthonyi 

 (Stejneger), the generic name of this snake having been changed. One 

 species constitutes the type of the genus; that is, it is formally designated 

 as typical of the genus. One genus constitutes the type of the subfamily 

 {when a subfamily exists), and one genus forms the type of the family. 

 The type is indicated by the describer or if not indicated by him is fixed by 

 another author. The name of a subfamily is formed by adding the ending 

 -in(B, and the name of a family by adding -idee to the root of the name 

 of the type genus. For example, Colubrinse and Colubridae are the sub- 

 family and family of snakes of which Coluber is the type genus. 



The Basis of Classification. — Early systematists largely employed 

 superficial characters to differentiate and classify animals, and their 

 classifications were thus largely artificial and served principally as con- 

 venient methods of arrangement, description and cataloging. Since 

 the time of the development of the theory of descent with modifications 

 by Lamarck (1809) and Darwin (1859), there has been an attempt to base 

 the classification on relationships. Very nearly related animals are put 

 into the same species. They are related because they descend from a 

 common ancestry, and that common ancestry could not in most cases 

 have been very ancient, otherwise evolution within the group would have 

 occurred and the species would have been split into two or more species. 

 Species that are much alike are included in one genus, being thus marked 

 off from the species of another genus. The similarity of the species of 

 a genus is held to indicate kinship, but since there is greater diversity 

 among the individuals of a genus than among the members of a species, 



