. Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute . iscussing, I beg to lay before the Society the followingnotes and observations, based chiefly on the examination of recent additionsto the collection of birds in the Canterbury Museum ;— ScELOGLAUx ALBiFACiES, Gray.—Laughing Owl. Since the publication of my work several specimens of this bird have beenreceived at the Canterbury Museum. Two of these have the sides of the facesufficiently white to justify the specific name selected by Mr. G. R. Gray, andto which exception has been taken by one of your contributors, who proposesto subs
. Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute . iscussing, I beg to lay before the Society the followingnotes and observations, based chiefly on the examination of recent additionsto the collection of birds in the Canterbury Museum ;— ScELOGLAUx ALBiFACiES, Gray.—Laughing Owl. Since the publication of my work several specimens of this bird have beenreceived at the Canterbury Museum. Two of these have the sides of the facesufficiently white to justify the specific name selected by Mr. G. R. Gray, andto which exception has been taken by one of your contributors, who proposesto substitute ejulans. (Trans. N. Z. Inst., Vol. III., p. 63.) It cannot be toostrongly enforced that a name once imposed is sacred, and must on no accountbe ignored on the ground of inappropriatcncss. Classical defects in sj^ecificnames may of course bo corrected, but to disregard the inflexible law ofpriority, or to make its observation capricious, would lead to endless compli-cations and confusion in our nomenclature. An appropriate and euphonious CD CO cr:. BuLLER.—On the Ornithology of New Zealand. 201 name is always to be preferred, but to reject a specific title simply on thescore of bad taste is about as unreasonable as to refuse the inherited surnameof Redhead to a dark-haired man, or Bluebeard to another wanting thisadornment. It may be objected to the very common practice of associating the namesof discoverers and others with new species that this fails to convey any correctimpression of the objects themselves; nevertheless this is found to be a mosteffective mode of honouring those who have benefitted science by theirexertions or researches without involving any practical inconvenience insystematic nomenclature. As a general rule, however, there can be no doubt that in selecting aspecific name it is better to fix upon some characteristic feature by which thespecies may be readily distinguished from other related forms, or frommembers of the same group. * Spiloglaux n
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