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becoming stronger. Mr. Swainson continues — " Admitting that appropriate Eng- 

 lish names should be used, who is to invent them ?" I answer that there would 

 be but little need for exerting the inventive faculties ; for, as I said before, there 

 are very few European or American* birds which have not at least one good name. 

 " Once attempt to destroy the received nomenclature," observes Mr. S., " and 

 every field naturalist, every tyro of Ornithology will contend for the name he likes 

 best. The Longtailed Tit, for instance, has the following names by which it is 

 known in different counties : — Huckmuck, Bottle Tom, Longtailed Mag, Long- 

 tailed Capon, and Mumruffm. The Yellow Wren, which in fact is not a Wren, 

 but a Silvia (Silvia melodia), is called also Willow Wren, Ground Wren, and 

 Ground Huckmuck. A choice must be made from these, and by whom ?" No- 

 thing is more easy than to make difficulties, and allege them in excuse of our re- 

 fusing to do that which we know would be right, though are unwilling to perform. 

 But true greatness is shown by overcoming, and not by giving way to, difficulties. 

 With regard to the Longtailed Tit, I do not see why we should trouble ourselves 

 by trying to displace that established name, unless indeed we agree to remove it 

 to a new genus, in which case Muflin is at hand, without there being any necessity 

 for raking up unheard of names from every corner of the island. If it were necessary 

 to do this, a volume might soon be filled with such names as Captain, Proud-tailor, 

 &c. &c, which are in use in different parts. With regard to the Silvia melodia, 

 " Song Willet" is the most appropriate name I have heard applied to it, and Sibilous 

 Willet for the Silvia sibilans. The name Wren belongs to Anorthura, of which 

 there are only two European species. " Whatever reforms, therefore," continues 

 Mr. S., " which experienced amateurs will admit, must be few and judicious, giving 

 in general the generic or family name to the species ; calling, for instance, all the 

 ordinary species of the Silviadce, Warblers ; except, indeed, those few groups which 

 are already distinguished by a separate vernacular name, as the Redstarts, Wag- 

 tails, Robins, and Chats." Wheatear, Reedling, Nightingale, Tit, Muflin, Dun- 

 noc, and Pipit, he might and should have added, so that of the fourteen genera of 

 the Willet family described by Selby in his British Ornithology, eleven are popu- 

 larly known by distinctive names, and of the ten British genera in the Finch fa- 

 mily, nine are popularly known by distinctive names. The fourteen genera in the 

 Duck family are in that work described under as many vernacular generic names, 

 and I might multiply instances to the end of the chapter, were it necessary : every 

 one of course has the Feathered Tribes and the British Ornithology, and those 

 works will bear out my assertions. It thus appears that Mr. Swainson's plan — 

 not the one he opposes — would be productive of most alteration if carried through- 



* It must be understood that I use the term America in the same sense as Audubon, 

 namely, for the Continent to the north of the Isthmus of Panama ; calling the southern 

 Continent Columbia. 



