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What impediments can arise, for example, in consequence of Prionus coria- 

 rins, or Philonthus impressicollis, or Emus hirtus, having no other than Latin 

 names, heside the thousands of other British insects which have no names except 

 those of Latin or Greek composition ? Nay, more ; how very few are there even 

 of those which have English names that are called by them generally hy collec- 

 tors, throughout the country : take the very first that occurs in Curtis's Guide to 

 an Arrangement of British Insects, the lovely genus Cicindela : " ex uno disce 

 omnes" The Cicindelee are anglicised Sparklers ; but are they ever so called 

 even in common entomological parlance ? Why, then, should we find a difficulty 

 or make one with birds which scarcely exists in the case of insects, and almost 

 still less with plants ? Is it not quite as easy to speak of the Oriolus galbula 

 as of the Golden Oriole ? to point to a Hirundo riparia as to a Sand Martin ? 

 or to say that we have shot a Phalaropus as a Phalarope ? I have a great re- 

 spect for antiquity, which my former arguments will sufficiently prove ; but in the 

 cause of science all things subordinate to it should give place, and we must make 

 a sacrifice even of our prejudices and associations in her behalf. Why should we 

 create a difficulty with one class or one genus of the same class which does not 

 exist in another ? In many, even in by far the greater number, we have no pre- 

 judices to contend with, no English names to remove ; and, even among birds, 

 the more recently discovered ones have either no English names, or, if they have, 

 the use of them is scarcely ever called into exercise : take for example the Anthus 

 Ricardi, which is much more frequently so called, even by those who are not conver- 

 sant with Latin, than " Richards' Lark" and the Cursorius isabellinus than the 

 Cream-coloured Swiftfoot. With what are more properly called the indigenous 

 birds, the difficulty in the way is the universal diffusion of their English names, 

 given to them before science had yet assigned Latin names to them ; with more 

 modern discoveries this is not the case, and, therefore, the same difficulty does not 

 exist. Then, again, the original birds, if I may use the term, have shorter, more 

 vernacular, and unmeaning names ; but when we come to more recently disco- 

 vered or less generally distributed species, then we find longer, more descriptive, 

 and more modern names. Of the former, take as examples the Robin, the 

 Throstle, Dunnock, Gull, Cormorant, &c, of the latter, the Olivaceous Gallinule, 

 Whitewinged Crossbill, Funereal Owl, and Whitebellied Swift ; but this, I am 

 willing to admit, is partially accounted for by the necessity of the discrimination 

 of diverse species, modern discoveries pointing them out, though formerly, perhaps, 

 all comprehended under one common name. But if, for the present, we are to 

 retain English names at all, we ought, in the first place, to alter them as little as 

 possible, il nomina trivilia nunquam absque summa necessitate mutanda sunt ;" 



from us English names for themselves as well as our more favoured native birds, especially 

 when the former are now almost as extensively diffused, in a preserved state, in this coun- 

 try, as the latter in a living state. 



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