238 



ON MAKING THE ENGLISH GENERIC NAMES OF 

 BIRDS CORRESPOND TO THE LATIN ONES. 



This is a department of nomenclature to which systematists 

 have paid less attention than to any other. Perhaps professed 

 ornithologists are not aware of the confusion which is created, 

 and the difficulties which are placed in the way of the student 

 by this unscientific mode of proceeding, as they themselves have 

 the subject at their fingers ends. New genera are daily forming, 

 and yet the old names — many of which were even then improper 

 — are still retained. For instance, we often meet with the fol- 

 lowing English and Latin names in standard Ornithological 

 works : — Meadow Lark, Anthus pratensis ; Gold or Thistle Finch, 

 Carduelis elegans ; Bull Finch, Pyrrhula vulgaris ; Java Sparrow, 

 Tringilla ovyziyora ; Hedge Spar rota. Accentor modularis; Grey 

 Plover, Squatarola cinerea; Meadow Crake, Ortygometra crex 

 (Raltus crex, Linn, and Gallinula crex) ; Willow Wren, Sylvia 

 trochilus ; Water Ouzel, Cinclus aquaticus ; and many others 

 that might be given.. In all the above instances there is a great 

 and unaccountable inconsistency, which might be easily avoided 

 with a little care. Of all English generic names. Wren is the 

 commonest ; thus we have the Common* Wren ( Anorthura com- 

 munis, Rennie),the Golden-crested Wren (Regulus auricapillus), 

 the Wood Wren (Silvia sibilatrix) ; which birds belong to three 

 entirely distinct genera. 



If the proper English generic names were applied to every 

 bird, how greatly would the acquisition of this fascinating study 

 be facilitated ! Are not the names Meadow Pipit, Java Finch, 

 Hedge Dunnock, Grey Squatarole,\ Willow Warbler, European j 

 Dipper, Bearded Pinnock (Calamophilus biarmicus. Leach), and 

 Snowy Lo/t,gspur (Plectrophanes nivalis, Mey), infinitely pre- 

 ferable to those given above ? For if an intelligent student finds 

 in a book "the Bearded Tit (Calamophilus biarmicus. Leach)," 

 he will ask, and with justice, how one bird can be in two genera ; 

 and no satisfactory reason can be given. By using the names 

 which I have given above, this is remedied, and all becomes 

 plain and easy to understand. It seems surprising that sys- 

 tematic ornithologists should not have perceived, long before 

 now, the impropriety of taking a bird out of a genus, and still 

 retaining its former English generic name. Professor Rennie 

 (Architecture of Birds, p. 236) goes so far as to say that the 

 name Reed Bunting is inappropriate for Emberiza schaniclus : 

 it is difficult to determine to which part of it he objects; but 



* The trivial term common is objectionable, as being vague and inexpressive; 

 but in some instances it is difficult to find any other. 



t Selby says he retains the name Grey Plover because he wishes his Illustra- 

 tions to be a popular work — as if giving proper names would render it less popular. 



I This is rather an indefinite and unmeaning specific name. 



