130 Ridgway on Zoological Nomenclature. 
The question is one of the greatest importance to ornithologists, 
and should be decided without unnecessary delay. In order to 
show that it is likely, sooner or later, to be agitated abroad, the 
following opinion of a writer* * in a late number of “The Ibis” is 
quoted : — 
“It is the boast of British ornithologists that their system of 
nomenclature is binomial. When Linnaeus substituted a word 
instead of a sentence to designate a species, he made an immense 
stride toward simplicity of nomenclature. The practice of Brisson 
and the earlier ornithologists, if it aimed at scientific accuracy, 
failed in consequence of the multiplicity of facts with which it 
had to deal. There seems, however, to be a tendency at the 
present time to carry the idea of a binomial nomenclature to a 
pedantic extreme. It is a common practice amongst ornithologists 
to quote specific names without authorities, under the cover of ad- 
hering to a strictly binomial nomenclature. In nine cases out of 
ten no harm is done by omitting the authority, but in the tenth 
case it leaves the precise species intended to be discriminated open 
to doubt. Exactness is the foundation of all scientific research, and 
the moment any doubt attaches to the meaning of a term, that 
moment such term ceases to be scientific. The fact that the same 
specific term has been applied by different ornithologists to different 
species, makes the addition of the authority to the specific name in 
many cases a necessity, — an unwelcome necessity, no doubt, to the 
binomial nomenclator, but not the less an absolute necessity to the 
truly scientific student. It would be well if the complication stopped 
here. Unfortunately, in too many instances, a difference of opinion 
exists amongst eminent ornithologists as to which species were in- 
tended to be discriminated by certain terms made use of by some 
writers. 
“For example: Saxicola stapazina is a name intended to dis- 
criminate a certain species of Chat. Saxicola stapazina (Linn.) 
professes to restrict that name to the species of Chat to which Lin- 
naeus gave the name of Motacilla stapazina ; but since the publica- 
tion of Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ the title Saxicola stapazina 
so much to defend this system of nomenclature, which in truth needs no de- 
fence, hut to set forth the necessity of an agreement between ornithologists as to 
the exact manner in which the subspecific term is to be combined with the 
specific name. 
* Mr. H. Seebohm, in the Ibis, January, 1879, pp. 18-21. 
