26 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. II. 



the genus Prion thus : " Un ongle tenant heu du pouce 

 de chaque pied." It was placed in his Vingt troisieme 

 ordre — characterised only as having the " bee dentele," 

 and comprising Anas, Mergus, and Prion alone — and 

 contrasted with the Vingt deuxieme ordre with the 

 "Bee crochu," which covered the genera Phoenicopterus, 

 Diomedea, Pelecanoides , and Procellaria. I think no one 

 will hesitate in agreeing that the diagnosis of Prion 

 here quoted, makes that name quite indeterminable, and 

 I would not consider that many of the generic names 

 quoted as Lacepede ex the Tableaux Oiseaux could be 

 determined by means of the diagnoses there given. 

 Mathews, in the Auk, 1913, pp. 92-5, has already indicated 

 the same conclusion arrived at in investigating the generic 

 name Ihis Lacepede. He there showed, however, that 

 species were attached to these Lacepedean genera by 

 Dauclin in an edition of Buffon, and consequently Ihis 

 was available from that reference which dates from 

 1802, or only three years later than the original 

 Lacepedean introduction. 



Now, in the case of Prion, a compUcation arises, 

 which completely alters the case. No species referable 

 to the genus occurs in Buffon's Hist. Nat., and as a 

 consequence no species were allotted to the name by 

 Daudin. Furthermore, Daudin does not even mention 

 this name when reprinting Lacepede's Tableau-names. 



IlHger, in his Prodromus, issued in 1811, mentions 

 most of the names proposed and utiKsed by Lacepede 

 in his synonymy, but on p. 274 he introduced Pachyptila 

 for the species Procellaria ccerulea and vittata Gmehn, 

 and does not mention Prion in any way, apparently 

 quite ignorant of its position. 



IlHger's name was consistently used until 1828, when 

 Lesson, in the Manuel d'Orn., Vol. II., p. 399, used 

 "Prion Lacep.," quoting as a synonym "Pachyptila 

 111.," and gave a good description of the genus, writing : 

 " Le type de ce genre est le Petrel bleu, Procellaria ccerulea 

 et vittata de Gmehn." 



