Clivicola versus Riparia. — In ‘The Auk ’ for July, 1898, pages 271-272, 
Dr, Coues draws attention to the fact that the generic name Riparia Fors- 
ter (Synop. Cat. Brit. Birds, 1817, 17) has page priority over the current 
Clivicola. Forster {ibid., p. 55) ; at the same time expressing his preference 
for the adoption of the former. The A. O. U. Committee, however, refused 
to accept Riparia on the ground that Clivicola was used by the ‘ first 
reviser.’ These two names are founded upon the same species and are 
both unaccompanied by diagnoses, so that there can be no question of 
their equal pertinency. Canon XVIII of the A. O. U. Code, which 
treats of generic terms published simultaneously, makes no definite pro- 
vision for just this kind of a case; but in the preceding canon, with 
regard to specific names, the following occurs: “Of names of undoubt- 
edly equal pertinency, and founded upon the same condition of sex, age, 
or season, that is to be preferred which stands first in the book.” 
Therefore, unless we are to have on this point arbitrarily different 
rules for species and genera, a procedure apparently both unnecessary 
and undesirable, Clivicola must give way to Riparia. That the above 
quoted principle of page priority was intended to apply to genera as 
well as to species is evidenced by rulings of the Committee; as witness 
Guara, instead of Leucibis, which was adopted by the ‘first reviser’ 
— a perfectly parallel case. 
While recourse to the decision of the ‘ first reviser ’ is often attended 
by more or less uncertainty, arising from the possibility of overlooking 
some obscure publication, the great advantage in the strict application 
of the principle of anteriority, as priority of pagination or sequence in 
the same book may be called, is that it furnishes means for a definite and 
final decision, thereby contributing to hasten on the millennium of zoolog- 
ical nomenclature — stability of names. — Harry C. Oberholser, Wash- 
ington, D. C. A,ak, XVI. July, 1899, p. 2.81, 
21 . [ Hibernation of Swallows.'] Ibid., pp. 35 , 36 . — Communication by 
Robert R. McLeod covering statements by John F. Goss and A. S. Free- 
man regarding the discovery of Bank Swallows hibernating in mud and 
in a hollow tree. Field &Foj?» Voi.8 tk 
Swallows [ Cotile riparia~\ Feeding on Bayberries. By James Allin- 
Ibid., XIII, p. 706. Nov. 1879. ( See below, No. 117.) 4m a>. ’Vn.fcnrn.Hsit 
