VI 
as coining within the scope of invalidity, and accepting others tha*. 
differed in a central letter, was rejected by the Checklist Committee as 
being in opposition to the International Code. 
Following the published official “opinions” of the International 
Commission which accepted Ficus, though there is a prior Fica, your 
Committee has retained Synoicus, 1843 (not Synmcum , 1774), Meli- 
phaga, 1807 (not Mellophagm, 1802), and several other names which 
had been discarded by some authors without the sanction of the Inter¬ 
national Code. It is hoped the rules will be followed strictly and that: 
uniformity of practice amongst ornithologists throughout the world 
will be secured. 
The Second Edition of the Official Checklist gives the following 
information:— 
(1) The consecutive number of the species; 
(2) The accepted generic name (with the subgeneric name in 
parentheses) ; 
(3) The specific name; 
(4) The vernacular name; 
(5) The consecutive numbers of the species in the first edition 
of the Official Checklist in parentheses; incidentally this 
furnishes a reference to Sharpe’s Hand-list of Herds. 
(6) The number of the coloured plate in Gould’s Birds of . 1 us- 
tralia (G. 2.j} 7, Gould’s Birds of Australia, vol. 2, plate 
47).- 
(7) The species number in Gould’s Handbook to the Birds of 
Australia (H. 261) ; 
(8) The number of the plate in Mathews’ Birds of Australia 
( M . 418); 
(9) The range of each bird in Australia and beyond is given 
in abbreviated form; 
(10) The original reference of the accepted specific name; and 
(11) After the necessary references for the accepted name, the 
references to plates and standard works, and the range 
of the species, the various names used in Australian works 
are given in chronological order. 
No opinion whatever is expressed as to the validity or otherwise of 
the many subspecific names proposed especially in recent years. No 
attempt at a full synomyny has been made. For this the works of 
Messrs. Mathews and Iredale should he consulted. 
The Committee desires to place on record its indebtedness to the 
numerous progress lists of Messrs. Mathews and Iredale, to the full 
discussions of each nomonelatural problem in the Birds of Australia 
by Mr. Mathews, and to the numerous articles by these authors which 
were published mainly in the Austral Avian Record r . It was, of course, 
not possible for the Committee to see all original references; some were 
available only in Europe. 
