﻿LAWS OF NOMENCLATURE. 237 



son, in short, who directly or indirectly assists an orni- 

 thologist by the donation or the loan of something new,, 

 will have an equal title to the only distinction we can 

 bestow upon a Linnaeus, a Cuvier, a Wilson, or a Tem- 

 minck. Is there not some reason, therefore, to protest 

 against this wholesale coinage of complimentary names 

 which now begin to crowd every page of our catalogues, 

 almost to the exclusion of those by which the species 

 can in some degree be made known ? Surely there are 

 other ways of expressing our thanks or gratitude to 

 those who assist our labours, than by this very cheap 

 mode of cancelling the obligation, — this prostitution of 

 what was once a scientific honour, but whichj is now 

 within the reach of almost every one, however ignorant 

 of science, or merely following it as a trade. But this 

 is not all : not only will a gift of a new bird insure its 

 donor " the highest reward" that a " true" naturalist 

 can receive, but a quorum of the council of a scien- 

 tific body may not despair of seeing all their names 

 attached to the new birds in their own museum*, — names 

 which are utterly unknown in the records of orni- 

 thology, and almost so in any other branch of science. 

 Another instance may be mentioned, where the sub- 

 scribers to a most expensive work are propitiated in the 

 same manner, with as great a violation of scientific jus- 

 tice, and of all that is consistent and proper. Such 

 names, however, will certainly not outlive their authors 

 or their namesakes. They will share the fate of the 

 Phasianus Impeyanus, — a name intended to consign to 

 immortality an Indian governor who first sent the bird 

 to England, but which M. Temminck has since called 

 by the appropriate specific name of refulgens. Sanc- 

 tioned, therefore, by an authority which stands so high 

 in the scientific world, and fortified by the spirit of 

 this law of nomenclature, w r e must be excused for not 

 adopting very many of the complimentary names in- 



* See some observations on this strange and unexampled proceeding in 

 " Northern Zoology," ii. 457. and Jameson's edition of Wilson's "Ameri- 

 can Ornithology.*' 



