REVIEWS. TIT 
ual capacity, critical discrimination in every instance; and the 
plan carried out is far more satisfactory. Suppressing only un- 
questionable synonyms, he retains all names not satisfactorily 
identified, and enumerates separately all geographical and other 
differentiations, in the cases of widely spread and flexible species, 
that have been distinguished by name. So in any given group 
we see at a glance what has been described as distinct, and may 
so be held with any show of reason whatever. As each name is 
accompanied by precise indication of locality, we can seize at 
once upon a probable indication of any specimen we may be look- 
ing up ; and after determining that it is such a species of such an 
author, it remains with ourselves to decide whether it is sufficiently 
distinguished from such another species. Thus any one inclined 
to be severe in the matter of species can lump to his heart’s con- 
tent ; whereas had Mr. Gray heaped up synonyms in a conserva- 
tive spirit, he would have made it like looking for a needle in a 
haymow for one of opposite tendencies to pick out the name he 
wanted. By this method, Mr. Gray makes an approximation to- 
wards a perfect mirror of ornithological literature only limited by 
common human fallibility. 
The list of species foots up a total of eleven thousand, one 
hundred and sixty-two, distributed among two thousand, nine hun- 
dred and fifteen genera and sub-genera. Making a reasonable 
reduction, upon the considerations just presented, the number 
probably will not exceed ten thousand—a figure that accords 
with current estimates. But the number of ‘“ genera” — one for 
every four species, and that in a class of animals of the fewest 
broad types, and an unusual proportion of closely interrelated 
orms —is a palpable absurdity. Mr. Gray, however, is not 
guilty of any such thing as this. The full genera he adopts are 
noticeably few—decidedly fewer than is now customary; at a 
rough estimate not one-fifth of the two thousand, nine hundred 
and fifteen names enumerated. For in this matter, he has been 
guided by the same happy judgment that dictated his disposal 
of specific names. In reducing the five thousand and odd genera 
that have been proposed to two thousand, nine hundred and fifteen, 
he suppresses only those that are positively homonymous— based 
upon the same type. The rest are given, as subgenera, each over 
its own type, without raising the question of their taxonomic val- 
ue; thus among the humming birds, we find only twenty-eight 
