NOTICES OF ESSEX ORNITHOLOGISTS.
" During a visit I have recently been paying to my friend Wm. Yarrell, we had
a thorough look through the London collections of birds and insects. There are a
few points respecting some of our British birds that we are very anxious to clear
up, especially as Mr. Yarrell is about to commence a work on ' British Birds ' to
correspond with his ' Fishes.' "
The points were the distinctness of the common Pied Wagtail and
the continental White Wagtail and the number of species of Ptar-
migan.
This series of letters, many extracts from which will be found in
the following pages, also contains numerous interesting allusions to
and observations upon the current scientific topics of the clay. It
is, however, to be regretted that rare birds are frequently referred
to without any reference to localities. This is unfortunate, but
until the last few years many even of the best ornithologists seem
to have paid very little attention to the localities whence came their
specimens.
Doubleday's brief visit to Paris in 1843, proved to him an event of
great consequence. It led him to undertake the chief work of his
life. Whilst there, he observed that the system of nomenclature in
use among Continental entomologists was wholly different from that
employed by those in this country. His attention had, it seems, in
the previous year, been directed to the subject of nomenclature, as a
" List of the British Noctuae" by him appears in the Entomologist
(i. p. 377) in 1842. On his return, therefore, he set himself diligently
to work to compare the two, with a view of ultimately producing uni-
formity. The execution of this task necessitated a vast amount of
patient study and research, and it was not finally completed until
some thirty years later. The earliest result of his labour was the pub-
lication of the first edition of his Synonomic List of British Lepidoptera,
which appeared at intervals between 1847 and 1850. A second, and
much more complete edition, was brought out in 1859. This, with
supplements which appeared in 1865 and 1873 respectively, brought
up the number of recognised British species to nearly 2,100. The
completion of this list, commonly known as "Doubleday's List," almost
marks an epoch in British Entomology. Though little more than a
label-list it has proved of the greatest possible service. In 1836,
Doubleday had attempted to render a somewhat similar service to
British ornithologists, by publishing A Nomenclature of British Birds
(Wesley and Davis), which quickly ran through several editions.*
* In the Imperial Dictionary of National Biography this is erroneously ascribed to
Edward Doubleday. It was somewhat severely reviewed in the Naturalist (Neville Wood's ;
1837; ii., p. 60).
C