Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/488

462 the subdivisions adopted by Mr. Wharton be justifiable, one cannot help noting the inconsistency which marks the separation of, say, Gecinus from Picus, while the Yellow Wagtails are allowed to remain in the same genus as their Pied relatives. Why should the Serin Finch, which possesses all the essential characters of Fringilla, be removed from the genus in which it was placed by Linnæus and dignified with a genus of its own? Why should the Green Sandpiper be removed from its recognized proximity to Totanus glareola, and have a genus to itself—Helodromas? We are aware that in the skeletons of these two birds a difference is observable in the posterior emargination of the sternum; but this seems scarcely suf15cient to warrant a generic separation of two species which, in regard to external form, structure of bill, foot, and tarsus, flight, note, habits, mode of feeding, colour of eggs, and manner of rearing their young, are obviously as closely allied as any two species can well be.

These and many other questions of a similar kind suggest themselves as we glance through the 'List.'

In regard to the inconsistencies of terminations, to which we have referred, an instance or two will best illustrate our meaning. We observe that the Redstart is named Ruticilla phoenicurus, Linn., presumably because Mr. Wharton was unwilling to alter the form of the specific name bestowed by Linnæus. For the same reason, apparently, we have Erithacus rubecula. And yet in the case of the great Reed Warbler and the common Reed Wren, Mr, Wharton has altered the termination of the specific names given by Linnæus and Vieillot from arundinacea and strepera to arundinaceus and streperus, to agree in gender with the genus Acrocephalus, in which he has placed them.

We notice that Parus britannicus, recently differentiated by Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, and Motacilla cinerocapilla, Savi, identified by Mr. Gould and Mr. Gurney as accidentally occurring in this country, are not recognized. Neither does Mr. Wharton recognise the British form of the Longtailed Titmouse, which he calls Acredula caudata of Linnæus, although he distinguishes our Nuthatch from the Sitta europæa of Linnæus, and calls it, no doubt correctly, Sitta cæsia of Wolf and Meyer.

We observe, also, that several species, as Vireosylvia olivacea, Regulus calendula, Picus villosus, Picus pubescens, Ceryle alcyon,