90 



THE AMEBIC. 



JRALIST [Vol. LV 



Even the experienced taxonomist might "be greatly puzzled hy 

 this collection of apparently inconsistent assertions, did he not 

 turn to the Code of Nomenclature of the American Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union (1908 Edition) and find the following explanatory 

 remark under Canon XXX : 



Generic and specific names . . . are to be considered identical . . . 

 whether the ending- is masculine, feminine or neuter or in Greek or 



In the principal codes of zoological nomenclature the practise 

 called for by this rule is sanctioned only by that of the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union. The parent (we may say) of the 

 A. 0, U. Code, namely the Stricklandian Code, in so far as it 

 touches on the point, would seem to accept very similar generic 

 names, even those differing by only one letter. Section 10^ says 



A name should be changed which has before been proposed for 

 some other genus in zoology or botany. 



This section is further elaborated as follows: 



By Rule 10 it was laid down, that when a name is introduced which 

 is identical with one previously used, the latter one should be changed. 

 Some authors have extended the same principle to cases where the 

 later name, when correctly written, only approaches in form, without 

 wholly coinciding with the earlier. We do not, however, think it ad- 

 visable to make this law imperative, first, because of the vast extent 

 of our nomenclature, which renders it highly difficult to find a name 

 which shall not bear more or less resemblance in sound to some other;' 

 and, secondly, because of the impossibility of fixing a limit to the 

 degree of approximation beyond which such a law should cease to 

 operate. We content ourselves, therefore, with putting forth this 

 proposition merely as a recommendation to naturalists, in selecting 

 generic names, to avoid such as too closely approximate words already 

 adopted fp. 118). 



These provisions were adopted (with a reservation as to botani- 

 cal names) by the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science in 1865 as part of a code which more than any other 

 guided the course of subsequent nomenclature practice. 



2Eep. British A. A. S., 1842 (1843), p. 113. 



