NOVITATBS ZOOLOGICAE XXIII. 1916. 339 



The oldest name of the Little Bustard is Linnaeas' " Otis Tetrax," Syst. Nat. 

 ed. x. i. p. 154, 1857. Linne gave as the habitat: " Europa, imprimis in Gallia." I j 

 He took his diagnosis from Albin, Bellonius, and Aldrovandi. The restricted terra 

 typica is therefore : France. The Western subspecies must hence be called 



Otis tetrax tetrax L. 



The Eastern subspecies has no available name. There are, in A. E. Brehm's 

 " Verzeichniss der nachgelassenen Sammlung (meist) europäischer Vögel von Dr. 

 Ch. L. Brehm," two nomina nuda, viz. Otis tetrax Orientalis and media, which, 

 according to specimens, were meant for Eastern birds. Of these I take up the 

 first, and thus the Eastern Little Bustard will be known as 



Otis tetrax orientalis Hart. 

 Type : <? ad., Sarepta, May 1889. In the Tring Museum. 



ON THE NAME OP THE " AUKLETS." 



By ERNST HARTERT, Ph.D. 



TpOR the Little Auks or " Auklets," for a long time known under the generic 

 -L name Simorhynchus, the A.O.U. Check-List (Third Edition, 1910, p. 28) has 

 adopted the name Aethia. This happens to be correct, but the reasons why the 

 the A.O.U. Committee adopted it and its author are utterly wrong. 



The Check-List quotes : 



"Aethia 'Men-.' Dumont, Biet. Sei. Nat. (revised ed.) i. 1816, Snppl. 71. 

 Type, by monotypy, Alca cristatella Pallas." 



In the place indicated we find the following passage : 



" Aethia on Aethya (Orn.). Ce nom est employe par quelques naturalistes pour 

 designer les plongeons, autrement appele"s msrgi et uriae. L'oisean que Merrem 

 designe dans son Essai d'ornithologie, sous le nom d'aethia cristatella, est 

 vraisemblablement l'espece de piugouin que Pallas a decrite dans son Spicilegia 

 sous celui d'alca cristatella (Ch. I).)." 



It is astonishing that the name Aethia was accepted on these premises, as there 

 is no certainty whatever that Aethia Merrem is Pallas' cristatella, because Merrem's 

 article was not known to the A.O.U. Committee, and Dumont (Ch. D.) could not 

 be considered as the author, as he says " vraisemblablement " the type was alca 

 cristatella Pall., and " vraisemblablement " means of course probably. 



But why was no search made for Merrem's name ? Evidently Dumont had seen 

 an "Essai d'ornithologie" by Merrem, and the first thought would naturally be, that 

 by this " essai " was meant Blasius Merrem's well-known, though somewhat scarce, 

 "Versuch eines Grundnisses zur Allgemeinen Geschichte und natürlichen Eintheilung 

 der Vögel," Leipzig, 1788. This work, unfinished as it was, because too grandly 

 planned, appeared in Latin and German. In the German edition appear only 

 German vernacular names, in the Latin one, Latin ones only. In the second 



