THE AUSTRAL AVIAN 

 RECORD. 



A SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL DEVOTED PRIMARILY 

 TO THE STUDY OF THE AUSTRALIAN AVIFAUNA. 



Vol. I., No. 5. 



December 24th, 1912. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



New Generic Names for Australian Birds 



Additions ... to my Reference List 



The Geographic Relationships of the Birds of Lord 



Howe, Norfolk and the Kermadec Islands 

 On the Generic Names Antigone and Mathewsia 

 New Subspecies of New Zealand Birds 

 A New Bird for Australia 

 A Changed Name 

 New Birds 

 Substitute-names 

 Additional Notes 



105 

 118 



121 

 122 

 124 

 125 

 125 

 126 

 127 

 127 



NEW GENERIC NAMES FOR AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 

 By Gregory M. Mathews. 



Some time ago I advocated the lumping of birds under 

 a generic name, and was warned that my action would 

 meet with little success as it had been tried and found 

 wanting by the American Ornithologists' Union. 



My own studies in the Procellariiformes and Lariformes 

 for my Birds of Australia soon convinced me of the 

 inability to follow up genus-lumping in any consistent 

 manner. Hitherto no regular system has been accepted 

 in genus-lumping, but birds have been lumped together 

 without much reason ; in some cases colour has been 

 accorded generic rank and structural differences ignored ; 

 in others supposed structural features have been utilised, 

 colour-values being overlooked. 



Seebohm in the Geographical Distribution of the 

 Charadriidae, 1887, wrote in the preface : " The diagnosis 

 [of a genus] must apply to every species in the genus 



