4 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. I 



The history of the generic names of the Bronze Cuckoos 

 is worthy of record. 



In the Isis, 1826, p. 977, Boie proposed Chrysococcyx 

 for Cuculus cupreus Lath., u.a. Whatever the limits 

 of Boie's genus may have been, the type of the genus 

 by monotypy is Cuculus cupreus Latham. In the 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. XIX., p. 280, the type of 

 Chrysococcyx is given as C. cupreus, but there C. cupreus 

 is used as of Boddaert. Boddaert's C. cupreus is a 

 different bird from Latham's C. cupreus, the latter being 

 the bird later named C. smaragdineus by Swainson 

 (Birds West Africa, p. 191, 1837). Consequently the 

 type of Chrysococcyx Boie is C. cupreus Latham 

 (nee Boddaert) = C. smaragdineus Swainson. Recently 

 Reichenow (Ornith. Monatsb., p. 54, 1896), overlooking 

 the difference between Latham's C. cupreus and Boddaert's 

 C. cupreus, proposed for the former ( = C. smaragdineus 

 Swainson) the new generic name Metallococcyx. This 

 has been recognised, but it must fall as an absolute 

 synonym of Chrysococcyx. 



In the Traite d 'Ornith., Lesson proposed a race 

 name Chalcites (p. 152, 1830) for the Shining Cuckoos. 

 This name has often been used in connection with the 

 Australian Bronze Cuckoos, inasmuch as the bird called 

 Cuculus chalcites by Temminck and included by Lesson, 

 was supposed to be a young bird belonging to this group. 



However, Chalcites was only proposed by Lesson 

 as a race-name, and therefore it is inadmissible as a 

 generic name from that introduction. I base this con- 

 clusion upon Article 2 of the Code which reads : " The 

 scientific designation of animals is uninominal for sub- 

 genera and all higher groups, binominal for species and 

 trinominal for subspecies." 



This forbids the recognition of sectional and race-names 

 of a value intermediate between species and subgenera. 

 That Lesson's race-names must be ignored is certain, 

 inasmuch as Lesson used genera, subgenera, and races : 

 thus he would divide his genus into subgenera for which 

 he gave Latin alternative names scarcely without 



