120W
e have now traced the scientific history of Brisson’s original hudo-dci/mus,
through all its complex ramifications. The whole detail is a good example of
the drudgery to which modern naturalists must be condemned, if they are compelled
by the laws of nomenclature to pay that scrupulous attention to the names
and works of authors, whose writings, useful and even valuable in their day, are
now become almost unintelligible to modern science. If this principle is to be
followed, the present race of naturalists will find full employment as commentators
only upon the works of their predecessors; books and synonymes, rather than
nature, must be their sole study ; for the time that is consumed in unravelling one
set of such errors will frequently be sufficient for describing ten new objects. We
most fully coincide in the propriety, and even the common justice, of distinguishing
every object in nature by the specific name imposed upon it by its first describer,
provided it is not glaringly defective or otherwise erroneous; but we must protest
against reviving all those, the meanings of which are either imperfectly stated or
are now unintelligible. By citing such accounts as authorities, when in point of
fact they are none, we perpetuate error, and transmit to posterity the same entanglement
of synonymes which we ourselves may have vainly tried to unravel.
These sentiments, from particular circumstances, we feel obliged to express somewhat
strongly, yet without intending the least personal disrespect to some estimable
naturalists, whom we could name, and whose labours in their generation have, no
doubt, materially benefited science. They have, in fact, accelerated that important
revolution in the modes of studying nature which are now prevalent, by proving
that nothing short of actual observation and minute comparison can be depended
upon.—Sw.
DESCRIPTION
Of a specimen killed at Carlton House, June, 1827.
Colour of the head, back, and lesser wing coverts, deep pearl-grey * ; the exterior edges
of the scapularies and tail coverts paler, approaching to greyish-white. A black band
commences at the nostrils, unites with its fellow at the base of the upper mandible,
and, becoming broader as it passes backwards, terminates obtusely on the side of the
neck: it includes the whple of the upper and under eyelids, and separates the grey colour
of the upper parts of the head from the white of the ventral aspect. The (ten) primaries
and their coverts are umber-brown ; all the former? except the first short or spurious
one, have a white space next their quills half q.n inch in breadth ; their tips are pale, as if
worn, except the two next the secondaries, which are terminated by a white border. The
Cendrê bleuatre pur.—Temminck,
secondaries and their coverts are blackish-brown, tipped with white. The tail is blackish-
brown, with a broad white border; the two central feathers being entirely of the former colour;
the adjoining one on each side of them having a minute white tip ; and the outer one having
the whole of its exterior web and two-thirds of its inner web white ; whilst the others have an
intermediate quantity of white, according with their situation. The plumage of the whole
ventral aspect is unspotted white, with a tinge of grey on the flanks, and of broccoli-brown on
the linings of the wings. Bill greenish-black. Legs dark resinous-brown.
Form, &c.— .rather shorter and broader at the base than that of Lanius borealis, but
having a sharper ridge and a more slender acute point; tooth very acute. Under mandible
more boat-shaped. The nostrils are concealed by black bristly hairs, which surround the base
of the upper mandible; and there are about six longer bristles at the angle of the mouth.
The wings are short, reaching within two inches and a quarter of the end of the tail. The
third and fourth primaries are the longest, the fifth is about half a line shorter, the sixth is
four lines shorter than the fifth, and the second is just perceptibly shorter than the sixth : the
seventh and following ones diminish in succession about two lines each ; the first is scarcely
half the length of the second, and is much shorter than any of the primaries or secondaries ;
the third, fourth, and 'fifth, have their outer webs obliquely narrowed. The tail is long and
cuneiform, the exterior feathers being nearly an inch and a quarter shorter than the middle
ones. The hind toe is more robust than the others, and is equal to the lateral ones in length.
D im en s io n s.
Inches.
Length from the tip of the bill to the end of
the tail . . . . 9
„ of the tail - . . . . . 4
,, of the longest quill feather . 3
.,, of the spurious or first primary . 1 ,, of the bill from the angle of the
mouth . . . . . l
6094
0
Length of the bill, measured along its ridge 0
. „ of the tarsus . . . . 1 ,, of the middle toe . . . 0
,, of its daw . . . . 0 ,, of the hind toe . . . 0 ,, of its daw . . . . 0
n0
5
3i
R