LAWS OF nomenclature. 
231 
sub-genera, resting upon no analysis or demonstration, 
our custom is to preserve the generic name only, not 
choosing to adopt suh-genera, which may possiUy prove 
to be mere examples of aberrant species. M ith these 
preliminary remarks we may now proceed to notice the 
laws promulgated by our predecessors for the construe- 
tion of generic or sub-genenc names— for specific 
names and the circumstances under which the latter 
they may be altered. 
CIS?.') Er.p,ry group or species for which a new 
name is proposk, must be i>ropcrhj defined, otherwise it 
cannot be adopted or noticed. — It is obvious, that i a 
new word is compounded, and applied to an object, or 
a group of objects, the meaning of the word, or, m 
other words, the characters of that to which it is given, 
must be fully explained, before it can be understood or 
adopted (if correct) by others. It has been a serious 
complaint among entomologists, that writers of cam- 
logues introduce a multitude of new generic or specific 
names, without concerning themselves with the trouble 
of definitions, leaving their readers to make out their 
meaning, as best they can, but assuming to themselves 
the priority of nomenclature : such silly vanity is un- 
worthy of any true naturalist, and has been discounte- 
nanced so eftectually by those of a higher order, whose 
opinions have been looked up to*, that there is no 
danger of the few experiments of this sort that has been 
tried in ornithology, being often repeated. For our own 
part we have, upon a former occasion, distinctly stated 
that “ all such names will be passed over as if they 
never had existed.” t . , i 
(188.) The character of a group or species must be 
so clear and definite, that it cannot be applied to any 
other. — It has been well remarked, that a bad or irn- 
perfect description of an object is no description at a , 
its proposed name, therefore, cannot be adopted. 
theless, if we were strictly to act upon this rule, t ree 
» I.atriclle N, ll'ct. ci’Hifct. Nat xxiii. 12!). 
f Macleay, 
0 4 
