PEOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIOKAL MUSEUM. 29 



iiouieuclature, and it is in fact the only rule which is able to establish a 

 passable uniformity in place of the present variety. Once universally 

 accepted and put in practice, it would save much time, labor, and dis- 

 pute ; disputes concerning year and date may easily be settled, while 

 all philological and linguistic disagreements may be thereby avoided. 

 The question as to which species one or another name is to be referred 

 has nothing to do with the rules of nomenclature, and are therefore 

 liable to come up at any time. 



As to the following remarks, it will be seen that some of the pages 

 quoted are given in brackets. This signifies that the author has not had 

 opportunity of verifying them, and that he therefore does not answer 

 for their correctness. All the other citations have been carefully gone 

 over, and are thouglit to be quite correct. He has followed this method 

 in his later papers, and intends to proceed so in all his works in the 

 future. 



In order to show how far carelessness in quotation and excessive zeal 

 concerning philological correctness may bring it, I select from the syno- 

 nymy of Phoenicurus titys, p. 30, the following bouquet: tifys, tithys, 

 thytis, tythis, titJds, thitis, tites, tcthys ; and many other modes of spelling 

 this word are surely to be found by a scrupulous investigation through 

 the whole literature. Now please, dear reader, if you are as learned a 

 philologist as an ornithologist, choose the right one! 



Washington, D. C, February 21, 1882. 



EUTICILLA 



is untenable as a generic name for the European Eedstart and its alhes, 

 as the group had already, in 1817, received the name 



Phoenicurus Forst. 



S\n: — 1817 — Phoenicurus Forst. Syn. Cat. Brit. Birds, p. 53. 



1822 — Buticilla Naumann, Naturg. Vog. DeutscU. I, p. iii. 

 1831 — Phoenicura Swaixs. Fauna Br.-Amer. II, Append, p. 489. 



The synonymy of the European species is as follows: 



1. Phoenicurus erithacus (Lin.) 1758. 



VlbS.—Motacilla xyhoenicurus Lin., Syst. Nat. ed. 10, I, p. 187. 



VibS.—Motacilla erithacus Lin., tit supra. 



1817. — Phoenicurus rutieilla Forster, Syn. Cat. Brit. Birds, p. 16. 



1817. — Phoenicurus muralis Forster, op. cit. p. 53. 



1831. — Buticilla sylvestris Brm., Handb. Vog. DeutscH. p. 363. 



1831. — Buticilla arhorea Brm., ut supra. 



1831. — Buticilla hortensis Brm., torn. cit. p. 364. 



1831. — Phoenicura muraria Swains., Fauna Bor.-Amer. II, App. p. 489. 



1836. — Phoenicura rutacilla Swains., Classif. Birds, II, p. 240 (nee Motacilla rutieilla 



Lin.). 

 187^4. —Sylvia phenicurus Machado, Aves Audal. p. 8. 

 13G3.— Buticilla pectoralis Y. Hengl. Journ. f. Oru. 1863 (p. 165). 



