286 NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXIV. 1917 



of both sexes of Tetrao orientalis. To show that every word refers only to the 

 Sandgrouse, I quote a few sentences : " Cauda cuneiformis." " Pedum crura 

 brevissima, antice phimosa, postice nuda." " Ligiti omnes breviuscuh et 

 satis crassi, membrana crassa, panim lobata ad basin juncti." " Ferruginca 

 sunt margines Capitis inferiores, Gula. Colhim ad latera. Cana sunt Caput 

 supra et Pectus." " Atra sunt Gula, Abdomen." " Crura anterius albicant." 

 And the description of the female : " Caput totum. collum. dorsum, humeri 

 & Cauda ex lineis transversalibus, irregularibus, atris & spatiis irregularibus, 

 majusculis, palHde ferrugineis mixta. Pectus palUde ferrugineum adspcrsum 

 maculis regularibus, subrotundatis, atris. Margo humeri ferrugineus. Reliqua 

 ut in mari." 



The next point raised by Buturlin is the size. He says that in the (muti- 

 lated) Enghsh text it is described as of " the size of an ordinary partridge," 

 and that the latter is, in his opinion, nearer to the Francolin than to the Sand- 

 grouse. I do not think that this is a point of any importance at all. because 

 there is not much difference between the two, and probablj', had Hasselquist, 

 or Linne, described both the Sandgrouse and Francolin, he would in both cases 

 have made a similar comparison. Moreover, in the original text it is said : 

 " Magnitude Perdicis ruffae." 



Lastly, objection is made to the locality, because the Sandgrouse is not 

 an inhabitant of forests, and because it did not occur in Western Asia Minor. 

 First of all, to be strictly accurate, we must refer to the original text, and there 

 we find: " L )cus : Natoliae saltus." That means, probably, forest-pastures 

 of Asia Minor, and we may add near Smyrna, where Hasselquist was. This 

 objection, too, is of no importance and cannot decide the question, because 

 probably the birds were received from natives, and the exact place added from 

 information received from the latter or some sportsman. Moreover, " saltus " 

 may, according to the dictionary, not only mean forest-clad districts, but also 

 " ravines," and in stony ravines Sandgrouse occurs. Lastly, Mr. Buturlin is 

 badly informed if he says that Pterocles orientalis { — arenarius auct.) is not 

 found in Western Asia Minor, for it must be common somewhere near Smyrna, 

 because it used to be sold there in the market and Gonzenbach found 

 its eggs. 



I am convinced that ButurUn would not have written his unfortunate 

 and misleading article if he had seen Hasselquist's Iter or the German trans- 

 lation, instead of an English, obviously incomplete and inaccurate translation, 

 in which evidently such unimportant details {? !) as descriptions of animals were 

 left out. 



There is only one more sentence in Buturlin's article which requires a .shcrt 

 consideration. He says that " in other parts of his book Hasselquist mentions 

 several times this new Game-bird found by him (letters from Smyrna of De- 

 cember 16, 1749, and of January 29, 1750), and each time under the name of 

 'Francolin,' a name which has always been appUed to the francoUns and not 

 to the Sandgrouse." A comparison with the original Swedish text shows that 

 this is quite correct, but the notes are only casual remarks without descriptions, 

 and a supposed vernacular name alone decides nothing about the name of the 

 species. As the real FrancoUn occurs also in Asia Minor, the name was evidently 

 known to tl-.e Europeans in Smyrna and was by them misapplied to the Sand- 

 grouse. Such misappUcations of vernacular names are frequent — I know, for 



