Vol. XIX, pp. 67-70 May 1, 1906 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE STATUS OF THE GENERIC NAME HEMIPROGNE 



NITZSCH. 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



The generic name Hemiprocne Nitzsch is commonly consid- 

 ered to date from this author's " Pterylographie," 1810, pp. 31, 

 123, but it was first proposed eleven years before in an anatomi- 

 cal paper usually overlooked (Observ. Av. Arter. Carot. Com., 

 1829, p. 15), in the main text and its accompanying footnote, 

 after the following fashion : 



"3. Macrochires (S. longimanae) in duas dividendae tribus, 

 quarum una continentur Trochili, altera Cypseli et Hemiprocnes 

 N. '0 genera. Hae aves itidem dextra arteria carot. communi 

 semper carere videntur." 



" '') Hemiprocnes genus, cui Cypselos, qui ill. Temminckio 

 longipennis, comatus, fuciphagus, torquatus vocantur, aliosque 

 accensio, a veris discrepant Cyp.selis et hallice sive digito pedum 

 primo retrorsum semper verso, et digitorum phalangum numero 

 eodem, qui in ceteris avilms solemnis est." 



Although in this place, as will l)e noticed, the word occurs in 

 the nominative plural to conform to the Latin construction of 

 the sentence, the author's intent is clear, particularly in light 

 of his use of the name in the singular form Hemiprocne a few 

 years afterward in his " Pterylographia Avium, pars prior," 

 1833, page 21, — though here without diagnosis or mention of 

 any species, — and still later (Pterylographie, 1840, pp. 31, 123) 

 when he gives a formal diagnosis and includes the species 

 Hirundo zonaris Shaw and Hirundo acida Wied {'=Chaetura 

 clnereiventris Sclater). 



Meanwhile, however, a little-known author in a forgotten 

 book (Ricmann, Zoolog.-technol. Loitfaden fiir Realschulen und 



15— Puoc. Bioi,. Soc. Wash., Vor,. XIX, 1906. (67) 



