78 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 



superiors, lias made changes which no law of science 

 can justify, as for Salicaria he has substituted Ripoe- 

 cola, for Rubecula, Rhondella ; for Silvia, Trochi- 

 lus* &c., and thus he formed a nomenclature for 

 his own use, as it were, for of course, no one would 

 follow him. 



It has frequently been proposed of late, by dif- 

 ferent naturalists, that there should be a meeting of 

 Naturalists to create a fixed Nomenclature, but I 

 think the mode I have now sketched, would super- 

 sede the necessity of that, in the carrying into 

 practice of which there are so many obstacles, as to 

 render the project for some time to come, if not 

 always, impracticable. The sooner the scientific 

 world can come to some such agreement, the sooner 

 will the path to this interesting department be 

 divested of half its difficulties, and the fewer the 

 difficulties, the more aspirants will there be, and 

 the speedier will be the progress of the science. By 

 an over great anxiety to do away with difficulties, 

 we often increase them a thousand-fold, and thus it 

 has been with the Strickland school. Shrinking 

 as they do from a small difficulty, they have rendered 

 it ten times more formidable, but their error having 

 now been exposed, we have hopes they will perform 

 the only act capable of recalling the mischief they 

 have perpetrated— acknowledge they have been in 

 the wrong, and in future, with all true lovers of 

 their species, adopt the motto, onward. 



* The worthy professor seems to be unaware that Trochilus is the 

 latin generic name for the Colibrees or Humming-birds. 



