NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 279 
to death. One witness after another declares that he has seen 
flocks of them flying southward several hundred miles to the 
east of the Bermudas, on which islands they alight only if the 
weather is unfavourable. Flying south from the Bermudas, or 
somewhere east of them, they must cover some 1700 miles before 
they land on one of the West India islands. Hither they fly at 
an almost incredible pace or they remain upon the wing an 
almost incredible time.” 
The index is open to printer’s correction; as an instance, 
‘Pettigrew ”’ is referred to p. 119 instead of p. 19. 

A Hand-list of British Birds, with an Account of the Distribution 
of each Species in the British Isles and Abroad. By Ernst 
Hartert, F. C. R. Jourpain, N. F. Tickuurst, and 
H. F. Wituersy. Witherby & Co. 
Tuts volume has a double mission; first, its distributional 
information, and secondly (though perhaps chiefly), its proposed 
revision in nomenclature. Its distributional element is excellent 
and trustworthy; its nomenclatorial revision will provoke the 
sreatest attention. That there should be uniformity in nomen- 
clature is admitted on all sides; its revision has been attempted 
in most orders, especially in the Insecta. But has the last word 
been said on the subject ? That the first or oldest name should 
be used will be agreed by all naturalists. The use of trinomials 
has yet to be generally accepted. However, all will be grateful 
for everything being said, that can be said, in favour of a method 
which many living zoologists will not follow. These great 
changes can only win their way in time, that is the universal 
rule, and although many will follow this lead now, there are as 
many who will simply be appalled by the proposition, and will 
remain true to the nomenclature used in our classical text-books. 
Fortunately, however important and necessary a uniform 
nomenclature is in faunistic writings, the subject is still only an 
adjunct to ornithology, and revised names, especially trinomial 
ones, however they may be desired, will only gain general 
recognition as they become more universally used in the nomen- 
clature of the future. The old order must first pass away, 
siving place to the new, and many will not desire this change to 
be hastened. 
