448 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
and Asiatic members of this beautiful genus. In this connection 
reference may here be made to a certain Latin generic name, far on in 
the list, retained as a vernacular title : the name Prion, as almost 
universally applied elsewhere to the Blue Petrels, has beeu kept as an 
English name. There being but one member of the interesting 
Asiatic genus Drongos (Dicrurime) in Australia, it was thought 
best to characterise it simply as the Drongo without any qualifying 
term. Those minute birds, the members of the group Dicseinse, 
and comprised in the genera Dicasum , Piprisoma , Myzaniha , and 
Pachyglossa , are all styled 44 Elower-peckers ” by writers on Asiatic 
ornithology ; and as there is but one member (an interesting case of 
geographical distribution) straying beyond Malayana to Australia, it 
seems only fitting to follow our confreres in ornithology, and keep the 
name “Elower-pecker ” for our Australian bird. The genus Sittella 
presented points of special interest as regards its English nomencla- 
ture. Though allied to Sit fa (Nuthatches) it could not well be 
called a Nuthatch, owing to its different mode of nesting, but its habits 
suggested the name of 44 Tree- runner,” and it was satisfactory to find 
that Gould has used the name in speaking of one species. 
The Honey-eaters, Parakeets, and Einches, owing to their numbers 
and similarity of style in colouration, presented much difficulty in 
choosing more suitable names than those already existing. Salient 
points in colouration had to be taken as indicative of what were 
deemed suitable names, some of which may perhaps be revised. 
Geopsittacus has been named Owl Parakeet, as being more suggestive 
of the bird’s singular nature than Night Parakeet, and from a desire to 
credit the avi-fauna of Australia with a representative — though 
somewhat remote — of the remarkable Strigops of New Zealand ! The 
genus Cyclopsitta may be said to represent a number of diminutive 
Lorys. They are all of small size, none exceeding 5 inches in the 
wing, and are named in the Birds of New Guinea 44 Peroquets,” 
which appears inapt, as it is the Erench for parakeet. It is proposed, 
therefore, to style them 44 Lorilets,” as with 44 Swiftlef’the diminutive 
of Swift. 
In regard to the Limicolae, Asiatic names have been retained for 
those which visit our shores, and the same may be said of the Ardeidse 
(Herons). 
It does not appear necessary to quote further instances in justi- 
fication of the new departure taken in the compilation of the 4 *list.” 
Only the more salient cases have been cited in this memorandum, but 
they point to the course adopted throughout the task. 
As regards what species should stand iutact or be eliminated, the 
new 44 Catalogue of the Birds of the World,” published by authority at 
the British Museum, has been taken, as it assuredly should be, as the 
basis of this list. Not a few species, more particularly among the 
Larida>, have been described in Australia as neiv , on characteristics 
which will not stand good when a large series are got together and 
examined. These have been, as a matter of course, expunged from the 
list, the work here undertaken being intended to be thoroughly up to 
date, in order to give future students nothing but reliable data. 
There, may be not a few zealous workers in Australian ornithology 
who will perhaps find the change of names in the proposed list some- 
what radical ; but, if the new titles are aptly applied, they will soon 
