COBRESPONDENCR 115 



To the Editor of The Analysts 

 Sir, 



The principles of ornithological nomenclature, as explained in 

 the third volume of The Analyst, P^gc 26, being apparently misun- 

 derstood by a correspondent, I shall endeavour to clear up the points 

 which have occasioned the difficulty. Carlo Cyffin is right in stat- 

 ing that my remarks have as much reference to the popular (or 

 rather vernacular) as to the scientific names ; and it was with a 

 view of ridding Natural History of these stumbling-blocks that I 

 proposed the nomenclature which has appeared in the two last num- 

 bers of The Analyst. Your correspondent objects to the use of 

 Latin names ; in this objection I coincide, and it is to remove the 

 necessity of adding the Latin to the vernacular name, that I would 

 have the latter as perfect and free from errors as possible. 



If it be true that, as your correspondent remarks, '^ scientific 

 names are hard to be acquired by the unlearned," should he not hail 

 with pleasure any plan calculated to lessen that labour ? and such I 

 conceive is the one I have proposed in the systematic arrangement 

 in the last number of The Analyst. The ornithological student, of 

 course, makes himself master of the characters of the genera found 

 in Britain ; and if each of these has an English name, he can at 

 once know in what group to class any new foreign species, even if 

 he hears its name for the first time. Numberless instances might 

 be cited to shew how erroneous names have misled, but the proposi- 

 tion scarce requires demonstration. 



Your correspondent seems to have mistaken the object for which 

 Latin names are invented and used : he remarks — " It is to be pre- 

 sumed that those who are Latinists also understand English," &c. ; 

 but it is not for the sake of English naturalists that the Latin name 

 is appended to the vernacular, but iov foreigners. Thus, a German, 

 on taking up a French, or an English, or an Italian, or a Portu- 

 guese work on Natural History, even though he knew those lan- 

 guages generally, would probably be puzzled to know to what 

 objects the names in those languages referred; but if the Latin 

 name were added, he would recognize them instantly. It is true 

 that, in private communications, we are often obliged to employ the 

 Latin name, and why ? simply because we will not take the trouble 

 to learn the proper English appellation. Thus, in one part of the 

 country, the Accentor modular is is known by the name of Hedge 

 Sparrow, and in another part it is the Passer arboreus which is so 



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