142 FR1NGILLA CYANEA. 
ambition of those pseudo naturalists, who, 
taking the trouble to make investigations, f° r V i(f 
i ndeed they are perhaps incompetent, glory in procla® ^ 
a new species established on a single indi vidua 
merely on account of a spot, or some such l rl 
particular ! The leading systeinatists who have euWjjj 
the boundaries of our science have too readily am* 
such species, partly compelled to it perhaps by J 
deficiency of settled principles. But the more exte® < 
and accurate knowledge which ornithologists A 
acquired within a few years relative to the ch" 3 
that birds undergo, will render them more cauti®®’^ 
proportion as the scientific world will be less dispel 
to excuse them for errors arising from this 
Linne may be profitably resorted to as a mo® 1 ^ 
accuracy iii this respect, his profound sagacity.'** ^ 
him in many instances to reject species whic*^ 
received the sanction even of the experienced B rl ^ t ]j 
Unfortunately Gmelin, who pursued a practice <W 
the opposite, and compiled with a careless and » f s 
criminating hand, has been the oracle of zoologis* 
twenty years. The thirteenth edition of the Sj/ 1 ‘ 
JVaturiB undoubtedly retarded the advanceim*® ^ 
knowledge instead of promoting it, and if Latba® 1 ^; 
erected his ornithological edifice on the chaste ,( 
durable Linnean basis, the superstructure woul® jji> 
been far more elegant. But he first misled G®*^ 
and afterwards sufl'ered himself to be misled by yt 
and was, therefore, necessarily betrayed into nun> c J 
errors, although he at the same time perceive' 1 j^j 
corrected many others of his predecessor. W e jjjj 1 
not enumerate the nominal species authorized by ^ 
works in relation to the present bird, since they ff 
be ascertained by consulting our list of synonym's 1 1 
comparing this list with that furnished by 'Wn s Y, ( i 
will be seen that the latter is very incomplete. 1®^# 
as regards synonymy, Wilson’s work is not. !l .j !>' 
deficient; notwithstanding which, however, 
perpetuated as a monument of original and ,u 
