CONCERNING THE BIRD'S LATIN NAME. 131 



cleator, the name of the pine grosbeak. It means " the bird 

 that dwells in the pine woods and shells out nuts," a name 

 which tells us something of the habits of the bird. Some 

 names tell us of the color, or the shape, or the home of the 

 bird; but all have some appropriate meaning.^ 



The Latin name of every plant and animal is made up of 

 either two or three words, usually of two. The first always is 

 the name of the genus, and the second is the descriptive word 

 added to point out the species. So that birds' names are like 

 boys' names — a Christian name, like James, and a surname, 

 like Brown, together making up the whole name of the bird. 

 Only in the case of a bird the surname is placed first, and the 

 Christian name after it, as Brown, James, and Brown, John, 

 are sometimes written in directories and lists of voters. This 

 places all the Browns together, and is more convenient for 

 ready reference. For the same reason the bird's generic name 

 is always written first; it makes it easier to refer to all the 

 birds that are nearly related, and it is also better Latin. 



Let us take the name Dryobates pubescens, the name of the 

 downy woodpecker. The first name, which means "one that 

 walks on trees," tells us that it belongs to the genus Dryobates, 

 so that we know at once what other birds it most resembles ; 

 the second name tells us that it is a soft and downy bird. But 

 what are we to think when we meet with Dryobates imbescens 

 medianus, the name of the little downy woodpecker of New 

 England, our smallest and one of our commonest w^oodpeckers ? 

 Why do some birds have two and some have three names ? 

 The third name shows that the bird is a subspecies of Dryo- 

 bates pubescens. But this opens a very puzzling question, 

 which we must discuss in another chapter. 



1 Barring, of course, the few "nonsense names" of some of the earlier 

 naturalists. 



