302 
Letters, Announcements, fyc. 
Acting Editor? Is he carried away by the “ conservative 
reaction " of which he so highly approves ? 
W. T. Blanford. 
June 30th, 1874. 
[With regard to Mr. Blanford's question, in the second part 
of this letter, relating to the British-Association Buies we may 
answer unhesitatingly, of course they are not to be abandoned. 
The real question turns upon the legality and, we may add, 
the propriety of the changes proposed to be made. It must 
be admitted that very great uncertainty hangs over many of 
the names in the works of the older authors, arising chiefly 
from insufficiency of definition, a great many names being 
based upon old drawings and brief descriptions in still older 
works to an extent which would not be tolerated at the pre¬ 
sent time. What we wish to maintain is that it is not con¬ 
ducive to the advancement of science that imperfect descrip¬ 
tions, about which grave elements of doubt often hang, should 
be made use of to supersede titles in current use. In other 
words, it is, in our opinion, wrong to supplant names which 
can be clearly attached to the objects to which they belong, 
by terms concerning the application of which there is any dis¬ 
pute. If, however, the case can be made out with perfect 
satisfaction, the change must be made. Moreover, if change 
of a generally used name can be avoided by placing a par¬ 
ticular construction on an old author's writings, we think 
that such a construction ought to be applied. 
But to proceed to the subject of Mr. Sclater's remarks. 
The use of the genus Platea of Brisson in place of Platalea 
of Linnaeus is clearly in violation of Buie 2 and its explana¬ 
tion, it being stated that such of Brisson's genera that are 
additional to those of the twelfth edition of the f Systema 
Naturae' are to be used. 
As regards the change made in the application of Linnaeus's 
name Motacilla stapazina, we have to suggest that it was un¬ 
necessary. Mr. Dresser's view is, no doubt, admissible; but 
this difficult case may also be interpreted as follows:—Lin¬ 
naeus clearly considered that both the figures on Edwards's 
