﻿LAWS OF NOMENCLATURE. 



235 



Campilorhynchus. 



Ptilonorhynchus. 



Tropidorhynchus. 



Dermorhynchus. 



Dendrocolaptes. 



Phoenicophaus. 



Pbalacrocorax. 

 Phoenicopterus. 

 Pachycephalus. 

 Strobilophaga. 

 Teleopodes. 



Opistholophus. 



(195.) Names of groups higher than genera should 

 always be derived from the pre-eminent type of the group, 

 ° r > V °f a tribe or order, from the character which is 

 most universal. — The facility which this modern law 

 of nomenclature gives to research is very great. It 

 first originated among our own naturalists, about twenty 

 years ago, and has since been universally acted upon in 

 Britain, both in artificial and natural systems. It is 

 clear, however, that before we impose a name upon 

 a group which has never been characterised, we should 

 carefully analyse it ; without which we shall run no small 

 risk of not discovering the typical character of the 

 whole, and consequently apply a false name. Thus, if 

 the rasorial order had been sufficiently inevstigated, 

 it would have been discovered that the peacock was the 

 pre-eminently typical bird, and, therefore, that the pri- 

 mary family would be the Pavonidce. In like manner, 

 Muscicapa being more typical than Todus, the family 

 to which both belong should be called the MuscicapidcE* 

 These changes, so far as the names are concerned, are 

 comparatively trivial ; but while the whole science is 

 undergoing a revision and correction, it may be as well 

 to make these and every other necessary change of no- 

 menclature at the same time. 



(I96.) The highest reward of a naturalist is to have 

 a genus called after his name. — 6C No monument," says 

 the celebrated Willdenow, " of marble or brass is so last- 

 ing as this. It is the only way of perpetuating the 

 memory of true botanists (or naturalists), or of those 

 who have benefited the science." Linnaeus, whose judg- 

 ment was always sound and practical, confined the 

 names of genera thus derived to botany alone, wherein, 

 even in his days, such groups were so very numerous, 



