﻿232 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



fourths of the species described by the naturalists of the 

 last century, and a large proportion of those of the pre- 

 sent, must he struck out of our systems, and rendered as 

 obsolete as most of their genera. We must, therefore, 

 in this instance, act with lenity ; passing over the 

 omission of many characters which are now found to be 

 of importance, and endeavouring to preserve all such 

 species of our predecessors, as we can make out by the 

 aid of their descriptions, and the figures they quote. 

 When, however, the former are inadequate to point out 

 the modern genus, and no figure of the object described 

 has been published, we have no other resource than 

 to act upon the strict letter and spirit of this law. It 

 is as clearly impossible to recognise the great majority 

 of the shrikes, warblers, parrots, — nay, of four fifths of 

 the birds described by Linnaean writers, — as it is for an 

 entomologist to make out the unfigured species of the 

 Linna?an Carabidce, and refer them all to their modern 

 groups.* 



(I89.) Every new group or genus must have a new 

 name. — To call a genus in entomology by the same 

 name as another in botany, would of course lead to the 

 greatest confusion ; we should not know, in fact, which 

 was intended — a butterfly or a plant, a quadruped or a 

 spider. The multiplicity of generic or patronymic 

 names, however, renders it very difficult for a writer in 

 one department to know what names have been used in 

 another. When such repetitions are discovered, the 

 name as first imposed or employed, is to be retained, 

 and a new one given to the other group. Hence the 

 following, among many others, have been changed : — 



Mygale, in entomology, has been previously employed for a 

 genus of quadrupeds ; it is now, therefore, changed to The- 

 ropkosa. 



Zygana, in entomology, is an old genus in ichthyology, now 

 changed to Anthrocera, 



* It has been truly said that there are hundreds of species in this group 

 to which the description of " carabus alatus (iter nitidus, elytris striatis> 

 antennis riifis" will apply, although in their structure and economy they 

 totally differ from each other. See Annulosa Javanica, 3, 



