PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 35 



VAXELLUS CRISTATUS M. & W. 



for a Ions time was considered to be tlie oldest uame as given in 1805, in 

 their " Hist. Nat. Ois. de I'Allem." (p. 110). Dresser has shown that 

 Bechstein'S VaneUus viilifaris of 1803 (Oru. Taschb. Vog. Uentschl., p. 

 313) is okler, and snbstitntes this latter uame for cristatus. The oldest 

 uame, however, is 



Vanellus capella Schaffer. Mns. Oru., p. 49 (1789). 



AEGIALITIS CAXTIANUS (Lath.) 



had already, in the tenth edition of Linn.ei Syst. Nat. I, p. 150 (1758), re- 

 ceived the uame Charadrim alexandrinus.* Hence 



AegiaJiUs alexandrinus (Lin.), 1758 ; and for the form occurring in Xorth 

 America. 



Aegialitis alexandrinus nivosus (Cass). — Snowy Plover. 



GALLINAGO MEDIA Leach, 1816, 



is antedated by Scolopax media Bock, Naturforscher, XIII (1779), p. 211, 

 which belongs to the bird subsequently called Scolopax major by Gmelin 

 iu 1788, and must therefore give place to Gallinago coelestis FREUZEL.t 

 The North-American form will then stand as 



Gallinago coelestis wilsoni (Temm.).— Wilson's Snipe. 



TOTANUS GLOTTIS (Lm.) Bechst. 



is the name usually adopted for the Greenshank, and for this is 

 quoted either Syst. Nat. ed. 10, i, p. 116 (1758), Fauna Svec, ed. 2, p. 

 61 (1761), or Syst. Nat., ed. 12, i, p. 245 (1766). Auy one who will take 

 the trouble to compare these three quotations will soon find that they 

 refer to a bird totally different from the Totanus glottis of Bechst. The 

 fact that the three descriptions of Linnaeus do not fully agree, will be 

 mentioned later; for the present we will only consi<ler those characters 

 which occur in all the three editions, or which occur only in the one 

 without being contradictory to any character given in the others. 



The following phrase of the diagnosis is the same iu all the editions: 

 ^^Rostro recto hasi inferiori ruhro^'; and the same phrase is repeated in 

 the description in the Fauna, thus: ''Rostrum nigrumhasi infer ioris mat- 

 ilia rnhra:^ Bechstein's glottis has the bill "gray at the base" (un- 

 der Wurzel gran), and never red or reddish at auy age or season. 



After the diagnosis follows a reprint of the diagnosis of the first 

 edition of the Fauna, ^4z, "i^emi^i&ws Uneis albis piscisque undidatis:^ 

 In Bechstein's glottis the primaries, however, are black, and the 



* (Cf. R. COLLETT, in Chiistiania Vicleusk. Forh. 1881, No. 10, p. 4.— R. R.) 

 t Scolo2)ax coelestis Frkuzel, Beschreibung tier Vijgel uud ihrer Eier in der Gegend 

 um Wittenberg. 1801. (p. 58). 



