232 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. 
fourths Of the species described by the naturalists of the 
last century, and a large proportion of those of the pre- 
sent must be struck out of our systems, and rendered as 
obsolete as most of their genera. We must, therefore, 
in IS instance, get with lenity ; passing over the 
omission of many characters which are now found to be 
ot importance, and endeavouring to preserve all such 
species of our predecessors, as we can make out by the 
aid of their descriptions, and the figures they quote. 
Vt hen, however, the former are inadequate to point out 
the modern genus, and no figure of the object described 
has been published, we have no other resource than 
to act upon the strict letter and spirit of tliis law It 
IS as clearly impossible to recognise the great majority 
of the shrikes, warblers, parrots,- nay, of four fifths of 
the birds described by Lininean writers,--as it is for an 
entomologist to make out the unfigured species of the 
-Lmna'an Carabidee, and refer them all to their modern 
groups.^ 
( 18 !).) Every new group or genus must have a mm 
name. — To call a genus in entomology by the same 
name as another in botany, would of course lead to the 
greatest confusion ; we should not know, in fact, which 
was intended — a butterfly or a plant, a quadruped or a 
spider. The multiplicity of generic or patronymic 
names, however, renders it very diflicult for a writer in 
one department to know what names have been used in 
another. AVnien such repetitions are discovered, the 
name as first imposed or employed, is to be retained 
and a new one given to the other group. Hence the 
lollowmg, among many others, have been changed : 
M/gab, in entomology, has been previously employed fora 
‘tierefore, changed to The, 
Zygana, in entomology, is an old genus in ichthyology, now 
chaiigfd to Anthrocera, 
* It has been truly said that there are , e • av 
to which the description of alatus iVSf 
» will apply although in their structurrand economj^ 
toully dilier from each Qthor. Sco ^«n«/oaff Javanica^ 5. economy .ney 
