on Mr. G. R. Gray's e Genera of Birds.' 415 



< Sittace, Wagl. In these cases all the equal or coextensive 

 synonyms should be cited first, the less extensive ones (if any) 

 second, and the more extensive ones last. 



5. In some cases Mr. Gray attaches the date of publication 

 to each genus, but it would be an improvement if it were always 

 attached both to the adopted name and to its coextensive syn- 

 onyms, as is done in the above examples. In a work based 

 on the law of priority, it is important that the date of every 

 generic name should be recorded, as furnishing the reason for 

 its adoption. 



6. It must be acknowledged that, in following out the law 

 of priority, we are often driven to adopt names which are very 

 barbarous in their sound and ungrammatical in their con- 

 struction. Man}^ of our modern naturalists have been sadly 

 negligent of their lexicons and grammars, and it is extraordi- 

 nary how often we see men of no mean attainments in science 

 commit errors in language which would subject a school-boy 

 to an imposition, if to nothing worse. I do not, however, 

 think that we are justified in materially altering, much less in 

 cancelling, such names, when they have priority in their fa- 

 vour ; but we may, at least, be allowed to make such slight 

 corrections in the orthography of these words as will render 

 them rather more conformable to the rules of language with- 

 out materially changing their syllabic structure. I shall take 

 occasion hereafter to point out numerous cases in which the 

 orthography of the adopted generic names appears capable of 

 improvement. I have not attempted to apply these correc- 

 tions to the synonyms, which had far better remain " with all 

 their imperfections on their head/' 



Commentary. 



Page 1. Gypaetos, " Ray," was first defined as a genus by Storr, 

 and should therefore bear his name as the authority. 



As I understand that Mr. Gray intends to remodel the genera of 

 the subfamily VulturirKe, I will say no more than to recommend 

 that the name Vultur, L., should be retained for the group which 

 contains V. fulvus, Gm., and the name JEgypius, Sav., for that 

 which contains V. cinereus, Gm. (JEgypius niger, Gray). We have 

 the authority of Bonaparte for this arrangement, which is far better 

 than to transfer the term Vultur to the latter group. It is well 

 remarked by the Rev. F. W. Hope, in reference to two of Latreille's 

 genera, the names of which were afterwards transposed by Laporte, 

 that " such changing of types creates great confusion and should 

 never be attempted/' — (Mag. Nat. Hist. n. s. vol. hi. p. 20.) 



P. 2. Add Polyborvs, Gould, to the synonyms of Craxirex. 



P. 3. Mr. Gray follows Lesson in making Physeta, Vieill., a syn- 

 onym of Herpet other es, but Lesson gives no reason for this union. 



