7 46 Recently published Ornitholugical Works. 
89. Hartert on P alee arctic Birds. 
[Die Vogel der palaarktischen Fauna. Systematische Uebersicht der 
in Europa, Nord-Asien und der Mittelmeerregion vorkommenden Vogel. 
Von Dr. Ernst Hartert. Heft vi. (Doppelheft). Seite 641-832. Mit 10 
Abbildungen. Berlin, June 1910.] 
The issue of the sixth part of Dr. Hartert's f Review of 
the Birds of the Palsearctic Region 9 completes the first 
volume of this important work, and affords us an opportunity 
of making a few remarks upon the new school of Trino- 
mialism, of which Dr. Hartert is one of the principal and 
most active champions. 
Some hundred and fifty years ago the great Linnaeus 
invented the famous plan that all animals and plants should 
he designated by two names only—one that of the genus, 
and the other that of the species. This excellent scheme 
was at once adopted by naturalists, and has been followed 
by all writers, with very few exceptions, until recent years, 
when the discovery was made that many species, especially 
those spread over an extensive area, might be divided, by 
more or less stable characters, into local forms, or, as they 
are now usually called, “ subspecies." In order to designate 
the “ subspecies 99 shortly a third or “ subspecific 99 name 
was attached to the generic and specific terms, and the 
“ binomial 99 system of Linnaeus was thus converted into a 
“ trinomial " system. Moreover, if the practice of attaching 
the name of the authority for the specific term be retained 
(as is done by Dr. Hartert), ail species which are divisible 
into subspecies will have four names instead of the two of 
the Linnean System. 
In spite of this defect (as we consider it), Trinomialism 
has secured many adherents, especially in Germany and the 
United States, and the number of “ subspecies 99 is increasing 
rapidly day by day. No careful student of animals can 
deny that subspecies really do exist in Nature, but the 
question is whether it is advisable to give them a special 
name. The late Dr. Sharpe was, as we all know, greatly 
opposed to this being done, and, in his f Hand-list/ has 
