280 Proposed Reform of Zoological Nomenclature. 
we would strongly dissuade from the further continuance of a 
practice which is gratuitous in itself, and which involves the 
necessity of altering long established specific names. 
We have now pointed out the principal rocks and shoals which 
lie in the path of the nomenclator ; and it will be seen that the 
navigation through them is by no means easy. The task of con- 
structing a language which shall supply the demands of scientific 
accuracy on the one hand, and of literary elegance on the other, 
is not to be inconsiderately undertaken by unqualified persons. 
Our nomenclature presents but too many flaws and inelegancies 
already, and as the stern law of priority forbids their removal, it 
follows that they must remain as monuments of the bad taste or 
bad scholarship of their authors to the latest ages in which 
zoology shall be studied. 
[Families to end in ide, and Subfamilies in ine. ] 
The practice suggested in the following proposition has been 
adopted by many recent authors, and its simplicity and con- 
venience is so great that we strongly recommend its universal use. 
§ B. It is recommended that the assemblages of genera 
termed families should be uniformly named by adding the 
termination ide to the name of the earliest known, or most 
typically characterized genus in them; and that their sub- 
divisions, termed subfamilies, should be similarly con- 
structed, with the termination ine. 
These words are formed by changing the last syllable of the 
genitive case into idé or ine, as Strix, Strigis, Strigide, Buceros, 
Bucerotis, Bucerotide, not Strivide, Buceride, 
[Specific names to be written with a small initial.} 
A convenient memoria technica may be effected by adopting our 
next proposition. It has been usual, when the titles of species 
are derived from proper names, to write them with a capital letter, 
and hence when the specific name is used alone it is liable to be 
occasionally mistaken for the title of a genus. But if the titles 
of species were invariably written with a small initial, and those of 
genera with a capital, the eye would at once distinguish the rank 
of the group referred to, and a possible source of error would be 
avoided. It should be further remembered that all species are 
equal, and should therefore be written all alike. We suggest, 
then, that 
§ ©. Specific names should always be written with a small 
initial letter, even when derived from persons or places, and 
generic names should be always written with a capital. 
