ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
AV e are again indebted to Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Strickland and 
Papyrography, for the following Illustrations and Descriptions : — 
SCOPS CRISTATA, Daudin. Var. 
Chouette a aigrette blanche, Levaill., Ois. Af. pi. 43. Strix cristata, Baud., 
Tr. Orn. y. ii p. 207. Lath. Ind. Orn. Sup. p. 15. Lophostrix cristata, 
Gray, List. Brit. Mus. p. 47. Ephialtes cristatus, Gray, Gen. Birds, 
sp. 17. Strix superciliosa, Shaw, Zool. v. vii. p. 250 (exc. syn.). 
Syrnium griseatum, Less., Traite Orn. p. 113. Lophostrix griseata,Zm. 
The specimen here figured was obligingly presented to me by 
L. L. Dillwyn, Esq. of Swansea. A ticket attached to the bird 
gives Coban as its habitat. This bird is identical in form and 
structure with specimens of Scops cristata (Lophostrix griseata) 
m the British Museum, from Cayenne, and I do not therefore ven- 
tuie to separate it specifically, though it presents considerable 
iversity in its coloration. The Cayenne specimens have more 
white on the forehead than the present bird, the rufous on the 
cheeks extends over the whole of the ear-covers, and the secon- 
daries, as well as the primaries, are marked with pale fulvous 
bars. 
I follow Mr. Gr. R. Gray in uniting Lophostrix to Scops, from 
which it seems to differ only in size. Mr. Gray, however, adopts 
for this united genus the later name Ephialtes in place of Scops, 
because the name Scops was originally giyen by Moehring, in 1752^ 
to the Numidian Crane. After a mature consideration of this 
question, which I discussed in 1842 (Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. viii. 
p. 368), I am still of opinion, that Moehring’ s generic names should 
not be adopted. The binomial system of nomenclature was first 
introduced by Linnseus in the tenth edition of the Sy sterna Natures, 
published in 1758, and that year ought consequently to be taken as 
the datum line beyond which no claim for priority of nomenclature 
can be entertained. It follows, that if we reject the name of Scops 
in the Moehringian sense, on the ground of its having been proposed 
previously to 1752, we must retain the term Scopes, as proposed by 
Savigny, in 1809, for the genus of Owls before us. 
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