LAWS OF KOMENCLATURE. 
237 
son, in shorty who directly or indirectly assists an orni- 
thologist by the donation or the loan of something new, 
will have an equal title to the only distinction we can 
bestow upon a Liniueus, a Cuvier, a Wilson, or a fein- 
minck. Is there not some reason, therefore, to protest 
against this wholesale coinage of complimentary names 
which now begin to crowd every page of our catalogues, 
almost to the exclusion of those by which the species 
can in some degree be made known ? burely there are 
other ways of expressing our thanks or gratitude to 
those who assist our labours, than by this very cheap 
mode of cancelling the obligation, — this prostitution of 
what was once a scientific honour, but whichl is now 
within the reach of almost every one, however ignorarit 
of science, or merely following it as a trade. Hut tliis 
is not all ; not only will a gift of a new bird insure its 
donor “ the highest vewanl” that a “ true” naturalist 
can receive, but a quorum of the council of a scien- 
tific body may not despair of seeing all their names 
attached to the new birds in their own museum*, — names 
which are utterly unknown in the records of orni- 
thology, and almost so in any other branch of science. 
Another instance may be mentioned, where the sub- 
scribers to a most expensive work are propitiated in the 
same maimer, with as great a violation of scientific jus- 
tice, and of all that is consistent and proper. Such 
names, however, will certainly not outlive their authors 
or their namesakes. They will share the late of the 
Phasianus Jmpenanus , — a name intended to consign to 
immortality an Indian governor who first sent the bird 
to England, but which M. Temminck has since called 
by the appropriate specific name of refulgent. Sanc- 
tioned, therefore, by an authority which stands so high 
in the scientific world, and fortified by the spirit of 
this law of nomenclature, we must be excused for not 
adopting very many of the complimentary names in- 
• See some observations on this strange and unexampled I'rieeeding in 
“ Northern Zoology,” ii. 457. and Jameson’b edition of Wuson s Ameri- 
can Ornithology.” 
