CORRESPONDENCE. 
Editor of the American Naturalist : 
Sir, — In the course of recent bibliographical studies the writer 
has discovered a number of cases in which the names given to 
recently described American hydro oids have been given to other 
species by previous writers. For t 
ally responsible, and takes the first opportunity to correct the errors. 
The other cases will be discussed la er. 
Halecium geniculatum Nutting. Hydroids from Alaska and Puget 
Sound. Proceedings of the — States National Museum, Vol. 
XXI, p. 744. 
This name was used. by Norman in a paper published in 1866, 
entitled “ On the Hydrozoa (etc.) of the Hebrides,” p. 1 
or this species the following name is now proposed: Halecium 
washingtoni Nutting. 
Halecium robustum Nutting. Papers from the Harriman Alaska 
Expedition, XXI. The Hydroids, 1901, p. 182. 
Allman gave this name to a species from gore Bay. Chal- 
lenger Report. The Hydroida, Part II, 1888, p. 1 
For this species I propose the following name : Kalohi harri- 
mani Nutting. 
Thuiaria elegans Nutting. Papers from the Harriman Alaska 
Expedition, XXI. The Hydroids, 1901, p. 187. 
Name preoccupied by Kirchenpauer. T ocdindie Gattungun und 
Arten von Sertulariden, 1884, p. 21 
This species will now be known as Thuiaria kincaidi Nutting. 
Named in honor of Mr. Trevor Kincaid, one of the members of the 
Harriman Expedition. 
Judging from the numerous cases that have "n come to my 
attention of the use of preoccupied names in zoólogy, I am more 
and more of the opinion that it is unsafe to give descriptive specific 
names to forms belonging to long-established genera. It is safe to 
Say that no one investigator has at his command all of the papers 
relating to any group of considerable size. The names which occur 
to a writer as particularly apt in a descriptive way are the very ones 
that have been most likely to appeal to previous writers. 
C. C. NUTTING. 
UNIVERSITY oF Iowa, July 13, 1901. 
(Wo. 416 was mailed August 22.) 
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