Vol. XXIV. 
1924 
Correspondence. 
71 
Merops carunculatus, and as synonyms, Falco albus and Proccl- 
laria fuliginosa. 
The question of authorship has been discussed many times, 
and I believe it is now the custom to quote as author of all new 
species described in a work the name or names of the author or 
authors of the book. We credit Lewin with the new names in 
his 1808 edition, although we know that the names were added 
in this country, probably by Shaw, and were not given by Lewin. 
1 quote Temminck and Knip, and Shaw and Nodder. In the 
dedications of the Naturalists’ Miscellany, both these latter names 
are included. 
I think that perhaps less confusion will arise if we quote the 
name on the title page of the work, except in those certain cases 
were all is known. Yours, etc., 
GREGORY M. MATHEWS. 
Foulis Court, England. 
Feb. 26th, 1924. 
5 irs> _I n a recent issue of The Emu, Mr. W. B. Alexander (1) 
writes as follows:—“It ( White’s Journal) is also of interest to 
naturalists, because it contains figures and descriptions of a num¬ 
ber of the animals (birds, reptiles, fish) and plants met with 
at Port Jackson. It has generally been assumed that these de¬ 
scriptions were written by White himself, and the few scientific 
names proposed in the book are usually quoted as of White." 
The qualified statement as to the attribution of the authorship 
of the various animals described is not upheld in an abstract of 
the paper presumably prepared by Mr. Alexander (2), for we 
there read: “The scientific names proposed for new Australian 
birds, reptiles and fish in White’s Journal, published in 1790, 
have * always been quoted as of White. The author points out 
that internal evidence proves conclusively that the descriptions 
are by English naturalists, and that those in the Appendix with 
Latin diagnoses, and for which scientific names were proposed, 
were almost certainly by Shaw. 
From this note it would appear that Mr. Alexander 'was the 
discoverer of the authorship of the names appearing in the 
Journal, and though the matter may be of little importance, I 
may, perhaps, be permitted to mention that twenty years ago (3) 
1 credited Shaw with the authorship of the names of the fishes 
printed in the Journal. Yours, etc., 
Museum, Adelaide. E. R. WAITE. 
(1) Alexander, “Emu,” vol. xxiii., 1924, p. 209. 
(2) lb. Aust. Sci. Abstracts, vol. 3, 1924, p. 19. 
(3) Waite, Mem. N. S. Wales Nat. Club, 1904. 
