282 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Report on the Migration of Birds in the Spring and Autumn 



Of 1885. By Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown, Mr. J. Cordeaux, Mr. R. M. 



Barrington, Mr. A. G. More, and Mr. W. Eagle Clarke. Seventh Report, 



(Vol. II., No. 2). Edinburgh : Printed by M'Farlane & Erskine, . . 1886. 



8vo, 174 pages and map. 

 The present report includes the same serried mass as its predecessors of detailed 

 facts which it is no light task to arrange, and we heartily congratulate the 

 reporters on their work. The chief general results presented — so far as daylight 

 can yet be seen — are the extreme regularity and precision of the migratory move- 

 ments of each species, and the England East Coast reporter remarks that it would 

 not be difficult to tabulate in advance with almost certainty the normal movements. 

 The Scottish reporter describes the movements of 1885 as being compressed, and 

 resembling a closed fan, and objects to the term 1 accidental ' as applied to occur- 

 rences of birds. The English West Coast reporter draws attention to the necessity 

 of observing what connection there is between meteorological conditions prevailing 

 at the time and the movements of migratory birds, and suggests that a competent 

 meteorologist should take part in the work of the Committee. The Irish reporters 

 lay stress on the importance of authenticating records by the preservation and 

 identification of the wings of the birds killed. It is gratifying here to note the 

 generosity of the Commissioners of Irish Lights, in presenting copies of Morris's 

 Birds to several of the Lighthouses. The Reports are not. of course, without 

 their imperfections, and it appears to us that a general supervision and a common 

 plan of writing would be of infinite value. To illustrate this, one finds 'general 

 remarks ' on the first page, and naturally supposes them to apply to the wdiole of 

 the book. But nothing of the kind ; they simply refer to the Scottish observations. 

 There are digressions, too, in some of the reports, which add nothing to their 

 value, and are indeed quite irrelevant. What need to praise observers for the ex- 

 cellence of their observations, and then — in print — to ask them not to write across the 

 red lines of the schedules? Would not a post-card serve to the latter end ? Interest 

 is added to the whole volume by the diary of Heligoland observations which is 

 given in the middle — and, altogether, British science is to be congratulated on so 

 admirable a compendium of hard facts. — W.D.R. 



The Code of Nomenclature and Check -List of North 

 American Birds. — Adopted by the American Ornithologists' Union 

 from the report of the Committee of the Union on Classification and Nomen- 

 clature. New York, 1886. 8vo, pp. viii + 392. 



If further proof were required to show that the modern American zoologists 

 merit a foremost position among men of science, the Code of Nomenclature, which 

 forms the first and perhaps the most important portion of the handsomely-printed 

 book now before us, would amply suffice. In it are displayed with equal force the 

 rigid caution and thorough examination of evidence which are involved in the due 

 consideration of such a subject, and the boldness of conception without rashness which 

 leads to the adoption of the views of which that examination has demonstrated the 

 soundness. How long have our British naturalists stood shivering on the brink of 

 certain reforms in their practice, which they cannot but see are inevitable? The 

 influence on modern zoological views of the evolutionary thought of the last 

 quarter- century necessitates the adoption in some form or other of the American 

 conception of trinomial nomenclature, and, in certain cases, of a quadrinomial or 

 even a polynomial system, inasmuch as the laws of nomenclature must in the long- 

 run be made subservient to the actual facts of which they are to be the method of 

 expression. On this, the radical side of the nomenclatural question, we hold that 

 the American zoologists are on the right track, while reserving our judgment as to 

 whether they have as yet proceeded as far on that track as the ultimate facts may 

 require them to advance. 



In respect of the conservative side of the question, we unreservedly express our 

 conviction that their position is equally sound, in their stern, unbending, and rigid 

 adherence to the Law of Priority in all its strictness, without- any exceptions, quali- 

 fications, or grammatical or other emendations whatever. A name is a name, and 

 nothing else, and it must be used and spelt as used and spelt by the author who 



Naturalist, 



