CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. l-. r > 



810. Diomedea brachyura Temm. B 631. c 578. R 701. 



Short-tailed Albatross. 



811. Diomedea nigripes And. B . c 579. R 700. 



Black-footed Albatross. 



812. Phcebetria fuliginosa (Gra.) Coues. B 633. c 580. R 703. 



Sooty Albatross. 



813. Ossifraga gigantea (Gm.) Reich. B 634. c 581. R 704. (!) 



Giant Fulmar. 



814. Fulmams glacialis (L.) Steph. B 635. c 582. R 705. 



Fulmar. 



815. Fulmarus glacialis pacificus (Aud.) Coues. B 636. c 5S2a. R 705a. (?) 



Pacific Fulmar. 



816. Fulmarus glacialis rodgersi (Cass.) Coues. B . c 5826. R 7056. (?) 



Roclgers's Fulmar. 



817. Priocella tenuirostris (Aud.) Ridg. B 637. c 583. R 706. (!) 



Slender-billed Fulmar. 



810. DI-Q-me-de'-a brach-y-u'-ra. Lat. Diomedeus, adjective relating to Diomedes or A 



Jove-counselled, a Grecian hero famous at the siege of Troy : application probably 

 fanciful. Pliny's Dlomedece aves were birds living on the Island Diomedea in the 

 Adriatic. Gr. Ppaxvs, short, and ovpa, tail. 



811. D. nlg'-ri-pes. Lat. niger, black, and pes, foot. 



812. Phoe-be'-tn-a fu-H-gin-o'-sa. Gr. <t>oi/3r]Tpia, a prophetess, soothsayer, like ^oi/Sao-r/jia, 



Phcebastria, another genus of this family invented by Reichenbach ; fyoifiafa is to 

 prophesy ; literally, to " play Apollo " with oracular utterances ; <f>o?#os, Phcebus, a 

 synonym of Apollo. These words are with great propriety and correct sentiment 

 applied to albatrosses, the import of whose weird presaging will be felt by one who reads 

 Coleridge's " Antient Mariner," or himself goes down the deep in ships. 



813. Os-si'-fra-ga gl-gan'-te-a. Lat. ossifmgus, bone-breaking, from os, genitive ossis, a bone, 



and frango, I break; in the perfect, fregi, participle/rac<s: three forms of the word 

 repeated in English infrangible, fragile, fracture: the Latin digammated from Gr. pyyvv/ji ; 

 the stem here seen giving an immense crop of words. Lat. yiijanteus, gigantic, giant; 

 the original " giants," gigantes, riyavres, were a race of Titans, who attempted to scale 

 high heaven; they were the sons of Tartarus and Earth; but, being probably illegiti- 

 mate, took the name of their mother; ."gigantic" meaning literally "earth-born," 

 yyyfvfis ; yri, and yiyvofj.ai. 



Only Nort,h American as astray on the high sea. 



814. Ful'-ma-rus gla-ci-aMis. Fulmarus is arbitrary Latinization of fulmar, which is said to be 



akin to fuli mart, foul 'mart, or foumart, a polecat; probably from foul (dirty), and the root 

 of the word murder (Wharton's MS.). Glacialis, see Harelda, No. 728. 



815. F. g. pa-ci'-fl-cus. See Anorthura, No. 77. 



816. F. g. rod'-ggr-si. To Commodore John Rodgers, U. S. Navy. 



817. Pri-o-cel'-la tgn-u-I-ros'-tris. Priorella we do not recognize, unless, perhaps, it is a 



frightful concatenation of Prion and Procellaria, two well-known genera of this family. 

 French ornithologists were frequently guilty of such atrocities ; see Embcrnagra, No. 311, 

 for example. Agassiz gives it as Prion and Procella. Prion is the Gr. irpiuv, a saw, from 

 the prominent teeth of the bill; for Procellaria, see below. Lat. tenuirostris, slender- 



