Meetings of Section I. 35 



SECTION I. 



Systematic Ornithology, Geographical Distribution, 

 Anatomy and Palaeontology. 



Tuesday, 18th June. 



The President, Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., in the Chair. 



1. Dr. R. Blasius : Vortheile und JSTachtheile moderner 

 Arten- und Unterarten Beschreibung und Namengebung. 



Dr. Blasius dealt at considerable length with the vexed 

 question of Zoological nomenclature, dividing his paper under 

 three headings : — 



1. The Law of Priority. 



2. Whether specific names should commence with, a 



capital or small letter. 



3. The nomenclature of sub-species. 



His conclusions were as follows : — 



1. That the work of Moehring (1752) should be 



ignored. 



2. That the 10th edition of Linnaeus should be the 



starting point of all Zoological nomenclature. 



3. That sub-species might commence with either a 



capital, or small, letter. 



4. That trinomials should be generally accepted. 



5. That Mr. Kleinschmidt's proposal to introduce new 



quasi subgeneric names between the generic and 

 specific names — for example Pratincola Pratensis 

 rubetra — should be declined. 



6. That in giving lists of species, only species should 



bear consecutive numbers, the subspecies being 

 distinguished by the addition of the letters a, b, 

 c, etc. 



7. That new forms should not be given names without 



a series of specimens for comparison. 



A discussion followed, in which Dr. Hartert said that he 

 sincerely hoped that everybody would agree with Prof. Blasius, 



