194 OBSERVATIONS ON THE NOMENCLATURE 



parts of Britain. Many instances have come to our knowledge of 

 the House Sparrow and Hedge Dunnock being confounded as one 

 and the same bird ; and not alone by cocknies, but by individuals 

 who had passed the greater part of their lives in the country. 

 We conceive that we have said enough to convince our read- 

 ers of the evil of continuing to describe Accentor modularis as 

 the " Hedge Sparrow." This bird is the Hedge Accentor of some 

 authors, but we think it advisable to give strictly English names, 

 and those which are well known, in every possible case. 



The Alpine Warbler of Latham and others, included in Cuvier's 

 genus Accentor, has since been ranked in a separate genus, for which 

 Annet (an unmeaning and consequently an unobjectionable term) 

 has been proposed. Alpine Annet, Curruca collaris. Curruca has 

 been applied to many genera by different authors ; but it suits none 

 so well as the Annet, which is a ground bird. 



Linneus called the Pied Wagtail Motacilla alba ; a better desig- 

 nation would perhaps have been M. nigra ! but we shall prefer the 

 golden mean, and, steering a middle course, name it M. maculosa. 



The Grey Wagtail should be called M. cinerea (Will), as having 

 been given long before M. boarula (Linn.). 



The Yellow Wagtail of authors was very properly removed, by 

 the illustrious Cuvier, to the genus Budytes, for which Oatear is 

 adopted in English. It is also called oat-seed bird provincially. 

 Spring Oatear, Budyles verna, Cuv. Sufficient reasons are ad- 

 duced in the Song Birds, for termingthe Blue-headed Oatear B. cy- 

 anocephala, instead of B. neglecta. They need not, therefore, be 

 repeated here. Oatear is derived from the localities which the bird 

 frequents in those parts where it is migratory. 



Lavrock is a provincial name for the Sky Lark ; but as the genus 

 Corydalla of Vigors is in want of an English name, why should it 

 not be Tawny Lavrock, C. fusca. It is sometimes named C. Ri- 

 chardi; but it appears to us fanciful and unscientific to name an 

 object in Natural History after an individual with whom it has no 

 connection whatever, either direct or remote. It is no more an ex- 

 clusive designation than Wagtail or Warbler, with which it is 

 equally applicable. The name is not likely to cause confusion, and 

 may therefore stand for Corydalla. 



The Snow Bunting ( Plectrophanes nivalis) is properly called 

 the Snowy Longspur, and the other species the Rusty Longspur 

 (P. LapponicaJ. Longspur originated, we believe, with Prince 

 C. L. Bonaparte. 



Chaffinch should be written as two words, thus — Chaff Finch, 



