THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 77 



Next concerning generic names: 1st: if they have 

 any meaning, it must be consistent with truth : 2nd : 

 it must not be a compound of a generic and specific 

 name. These are perhaps quite enough, and surely 

 they are simple enough. These laws have frequently 

 been transgressed, and that they have been so, is chief- 

 ly to be attributed to the blindness of these, who, like 

 Mr. Strickland, would proscribe reform altogether. 

 This short-sightedness would be productive of a 

 two-fold evil — 1st: it would render nomenclators 

 careless in the names they bestowed, for, they would 

 say, it has been argued that no one has a right to 

 alter names once given whether true or erroneous ; 

 and 2nd : it would lead every one to change as they 

 chose, whether with reason or not, for, seeing that 

 the arguments of the Strickland school were un- 

 tenable — as there must be some reform, — they would 

 disregard them entirely. 



Several of our greatest naturalists have made 

 changes without reason : thus Mr. Swainson, has 

 changed the generic name of the Redbreast from 

 Rubecula to Erythaca : this neither he nor any one 

 else has any right to do, for there is no objection to 

 the former name, and it was used by Willughby, 

 Brisson, and other old authors. The same may be 

 said of Ruticilla which Swainson, with equal little 

 right, altered to Phenicura. If once these sort of 

 changes creep in,, it is time to fear for the welfare of 

 the science, but it would be absurd to condemn the 

 system altogether because excess was sometimes 

 apparent. Hennie, following the example of his 



