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and the species has to be called Ferdix perdix (L.); I can only 
say that I am sorry, but it cannot be helped. 
Canon Tristram’s paper on the “Use and Abuse of Generic 
Names” (“Ibis,” 1895, pp. 130-133) expresses the ideas of an 
old-fashioned ornithologist on modern-day work, but my critic 
has not shown the consistency of opinion which might have been 
expected from the author of such an emphatic diatribe as that 
which he has directed against me and my methods of work. 
Genera are, according to Canon Tristram, entirely arbitrary, 
and to be employed only for our convenience, and names 
should not be bestowed when there is only a single species to 
represent them. In order to grasp my critic’s full meaning, I 
consulted the published “Catalogue” of his collection, and there 
I found the whole of the Thrushes placed under the genus Tur- 
dus, though this is exactly the instance he quotes in his critique 
in which these birds ought absolutely to be classified under the 
heading of the two genera, Turdus scadMeruta. Then, in order 
to determine what characters Canon Tristram considered to be 
of generic value in the only instance in which he has shared 
my crimes with me, I find that the Seychelles Scops-Owl was 
considered by him to be worthy of a new generic name. Gym- 
noscops, from the fact that “ its ear-tufts, if any, are only rudi- 
mentary, and its tarsi wholly unfcathered, excepting a narrow 
line for about a quarter of an inch down the front of the tar- 
sus, while the back of the joint is entirely bare.” Slender dis- 
tinction enough, as the describer himself seems to think, for 
he adds : “ I venture to think that these differences entitle 
it at least to sub-generic, if not generic, rank.” After this ad- 
mission of what constitutes a generic or sub-generic difference, 
I am surprised that Canon Tristram should have ventured to 
stigmatise as “new fangled,” “absolutely capricious,” &c., 
genera which are founded on quite as strong characters as he 
allows to be sufficient in his own case. 
