636 Remarks on Nomenclature, 



To keep our clew of the notices in this Magazine on cer- 

 tain Caprimulgidae, mostly the Caprimulgus europae\is, wound 

 up, we now add V. 726.; VII. 156. 317. and note *, 511. 

 559, 560. 633., to the references given in V. 674. 



In IV. 424., V. 241., VII. 511. 559., objections are ex- 

 pressed to the application of the names goatsucker, Capri- 

 mulgus, and Nyctichelidon, to the species of birds to which 

 they are applied, as not any species of them either sucks a 

 goat ; milks a goat, which deed the word Caprimulgus im- 

 putes ; or is a night-swallow, strictly speaking, which the 

 word Nyctichelidon, taken literally, implies it to be. O. has 

 remarked, in VII. 511., that a species which visits Lower 

 Canada is called by the inhabitants " the mosquito hawk ; " 

 and he has added, that this is " a more appropriate name, as 

 relates to the habits of the bird, than goatsucker." Mr. 

 Mathews has informed us above, that the species which is the 

 subject of his notice had fed on mosquitoes and coleopterous 

 insects. In relation to the name of the species which visits 

 Britain, a correspondent has recently asked as follows : — 

 "Would not the name Nyctivociferator europae^us be preferable 

 to Caprimulgus europae^us L., or to Nyctichelidon europae^us 

 Renriie ? All the kinds of the genus ' Caprimulgus ' are 

 addicted to screeching : some in the night. — W. H. Y. Sept. 



10. 1834." As we suspect that our correspondent's proposed 

 generic name of seven syllables, the first two Greek, the rest 

 Latin, will scarcely be well received, we may state that he had 

 previously proposed, in a communication, dated July 5., " Vo- 

 ciferator europae\is," as the name of the nightjar which visits 

 Britain. " Vociferator," as a generic name, is free from the 

 literary objections to which " Nyctivociferator" is subject. 

 All these words about names, which we have for once indulged 

 in, may serve to instance reasons, however humble ones, for 

 the opinion on generic names which Dr. Lindley has expressed, 

 and other naturalists have concurred in, (See VI. 232.) His 

 opinion is this: — " So impossible is it to construct generic 

 names that will express the peculiarities of the species they 

 represent, that I quite agree with those who think a good 

 unmeaning name by far the best that can be contrived." 



Previous contributions by Mr. Mathews will be found in 



11. 67. and III. 431. In VI. 314 — 319. are figures and de- 

 scriptions of some marine animals which Mr. Mathews had 

 discovered, and a notice of the fact of his having collected 

 many species of plants in South America, some of them not 

 previously discovered ones, and of Dr. Hooker's having named 

 a South American plant, Mathewszfl foliosa, in honour of him. 

 Besides Mr. Mathews's attention to, and acquisition of, objects 



