WCP2317

Letter (WCP2317.2207)

[1]

M[agdalene] C[ollege]1

28 April 1875

My dear Wallace,

Owing to the little regard that most ornithologists2pay to generic characters it is by no means easy to separate the genera3 which I should consider Emberizidae4 from the lot that have been so often included under Fringillidae5. The difficulty lies mainly with the New World6 groups, but I should be inclined to put the first 57 genera of S[clater]7 & S[alvin]'s 8 'nomenclator8' under 'Emberizidae [.]' [2] There is however great risk of error here — it will probably be found that several of these are Truly Finches9. About Junco10 & Pipilo11 I don't feel at all certain but Zonotrichia12 & Spermophila13 seem to be decidedly Buntings14. In old world forms I think you will find much less difficulty in discriminating between Fringillidae & Emberizidae — the trouble here is to tell the former from Ploceidae15, if they should really be taken as distant families, which [3] I am often inclined to doubt.

Your 'Neotropical' MS [manuscript] I hope to return tomorrow — but I must ask you to let me keep the 'Ethiopian' a little longer. I have got Salvin to draw me up a table of Neo Trop[ical]16 genera with marks to show in which of each of his 6 subregions (instead of just 4) each is found. This is worth a great deal more than the clumsy method adopted by Sclater & the 'nomenclator.'

I am in a terrible state of doubt [4] & am fast becoming a disbeliever in the Nearctic Region! but I hope I may find some decent excuse for remaining in the orthodox faith[.]

Believe me | Yours very Truly | Alfred Newton [signature]

1
Newton studied at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, graduating in 1853. In 1854, he was elected Travelling Fellow of Magdalene College, and until 1863 he travelled the world on a number of ornithological expeditions. In 1866 he became the first Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge.
2
Ornithologist is a zoologist who specialises in the study of birds.
3
Genus (plural: Genera) is a grouping of organisms that have common characteristics distinct from those of other such groupings. Genus comes above species and below family in the taxonomic ranking system used for biological classification.
4
Emberizidae is a large family of birds known as buntings in the Old World and sparrows in the New World.
5
Fringillidae is the family of birds in which the true finches are found.
6
New World is a name used for the Western Hemisphere, notably the Americas, as opposed to the Old World — Europe, Asia and Africa.
7
Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 — 27 June 1913) was an English lawyer, zoologist, and ornithologist. He was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London for 42 years, from 1860-1902.
8
Nomenclator Avium (1873), a book written by Philip Sclater and Osbert Salvin, detailing a list of all the species of birds inhabiting south America.
9
True Finches are passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. They are largely seed-eating songbirds. Some birds in other families are also commonly called 'finches,' such as the American sparrow family (Emberizidae) which seems to be the problem Newton is alluding to in this letter.
10
Junco is a small North American bird in the family Emberizidae.
11
Pipilo is a genus of birds in the family Emberizidae. It is one of two genera of birds usually identified as Towhees.
12
Zonotrichia is a genus of five American sparrows in the family Emberizidae
13
Spermophila is a genus of bird
14
Buntings are a group of Eurasian and African passerine birds of the family Emberizidae. Their behaviour is very similar to that of finches, hence the reason they used to be grouped together.
15
The Ploceidae, or weavers, are small passerine birds related to the finches.
16
In biogeography, the Neotropic zone is one of the eight terrestrial ecozones. This particular ecozone includes South and Central America, the Mexican lowlands, the Caribbean Islands, and southern Florida, because these regions share a large number of plant and animal groups.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2317.2207)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Gibbs, Rosie [2013-07-16]

Please cite as “WCP2317,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2317