Page:A list of the birds of Australia 1913.djvu/15

 In the Emu, Vol. XI, p. 58, 1911, the Editors wrote: "Australian authors have been following the British Museum Catalogues."

I have purposely refrained from mentioning field-workers, as Campbell, in the preface to the Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, has given so delightful and full an account, that any review made here would be entirely superfluous and valueless, as I have nothing to add. There should not be, and I do not believe there is, any antagonism between the fieldworker and the systematist, as each must necessarily depend upon the other for assistance.

The Committee have failed to note that in every other country the field-worker is now co-operating fully with the systematist, and thereby much knowledge is being gained. The recent Studies in Bird Migration by W. Eagle Clarke, is a good instance of the advance made by the full acceptance of the systematist's labour in conjunction with detailed and skilful field-work. The splendid results recently achieved in Australian Ornithology are all due to co-operation, yet in the Checklist the Committee have omitted to take into consideration any of the recent work of systematists, and for this reason alone the Checklist fails to fufil its title.

II..

The Report of the Checklist Committee gives in detail the reasoning adopted to account for the nomenclature utilized throughout the Checklist. That unanimity among Australian ornithologists with regard to the Checklist was not achieved is apparent from the session minutes. Outside Australia the Checklist cannot meet with any recognition from ornithologists, as the International Laws governing nomenclature have been wilfully disregarded, and an attempt has been made to frame a list upon no nomenclatural basis whatever. The long explanation given by the Checklist Committee simply emphasizes the fact that the members did not fully comprehend the reasons governing the acceptance of the International Laws, and their action with regard to the Law of Priority is incomprehensible from every point of view.

The Committee state that "The classification now presented therefore purports to be Gould's classification, remodelled, corrected and modernized by the classification of the British Museum Catalogue and finally revised by your Committee."