880 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus PROCNIAS Illiger. 



Procnias fi Illiger, Prodromus Syst. Mam. et Av., 1811, 228. (Type, by elimi- 

 nation, Ampelis varicgata Gmelin.)& 



lAveranus Rafinesque, Analyse, 1815, 67. (A nomen nudum). 



Averano Lesson, Traite d'Orn., 1831, 364. (Type, Ampelis rariegata Gmelin.) 



Averanos (emendation) Strickland, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vii, Mar., 

 1841, 29. 



Casmarhinchos Temminck, Man. d'Orn., 2d ed., i, 1820, p. Ixiii (Analyse). (Type, 

 by elimination, Ampelis carunculata Gm.e\m= Ampelis nirea Boddaert.) 



Casmarhynckus (emendation) Spix, Avium. Sp. Nov., ii, 1825, 3. 



Casmorhynchus (emendation) Swainson, Classif. Birds, i, 1836, 55, in text; ii, 

 1837, 75, 252, in text. 



Ca^marhynchos (emendation) Temminck, Tabl. Meth., 1839, 21. 



Chasmorhynchus (emendation) Gloger, Gem. Hand-u. Hilfsb. Nat., Bd. i, 1842, 

 320. 



a "A Procne in hirundinem mutata." 



b The species given by Illiger as examples of his genus Procnias are (1) Ampelis 

 variegata Gmelin, (2) Ampelis carunculata Gmelin?, and (3) Hirundo t'mrfis Temminck 

 {''Ampelis variegata, carunculata? Lin Gmel. Hirundo viridis Temminck catalog"). 

 The first and second of these are members of the present genus. The third is the 

 female or young male of the Tanager-like bird generally known as Procnias tersa, P. 

 viridis, or P. cxrulea; and instead of being the type of the genus Procnias Illiger, as 

 commonly supposed, was the first of the three to be withdrawn from that genus, Vieillot 

 having in 1816 (Analyse, p. 38) based his genus Tersa upon the same species (although 

 the type is given as " Tersine Buff[on]"= J.mpeHs tersa Linnaeus, an unidentified 

 species, while in 1819 (Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxiii, 401) he renamed the genus, 

 this time calling it Tersina and giving as the type Tersina cserulea Vieillot. Just what 

 the interrogation point following the name carunculata means in Illiger's " Prodromus " 

 it is difficult to determine, but it may have been intended to indicate doubt as to that 

 species really belonging to Procnias; at any rate, the type of Procnias Illiger would, in 

 view of Vieillot's disposition of Hirundo viridis Temminck, necessarily be either 

 Ampelis variegata Gmelin or A. carunculata Gmelin, since Temminck first named and 

 characterized the genus Casmarhinchos (subsequently variously "emended" by other 

 authors) in 1820, the type (by elimination) being Ampelis variegata Gmelin. In other 

 words, Casmarhinchos Temminck is a synonym of Procnias Illiger. 



In view of the fact that Vieillot gives "Tersine Buff [on]" as the type of his genus 

 Tersa, notwithstanding the generic diagnosis evidently was taken from the bird com- 

 monly but erroneously (both as to its generic and specific names) called Procnias tersa, 

 it is difficult to decide whether this name should be used instead of Tersina of later date 

 or not. It is not necessary, however, in the present connection, that this question be 

 decided, it being sufficient to cite the references to the original publication of the 

 names in question, which are as follows: 



Tersa Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, 38 (the diagnosis pertinent, but type given as Tersine of 

 Buffon, a species which has never been satisfactorily identified and which certainly 

 can not be the bird commonly called Procnias tersa'). — Tersina Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. 

 d'Hist. Nat., xxxiii, 1819,401 (type, Tersina cserulea YieiWot). — Procm'as (not of Illiger, 

 1811) Temminck, Man. d'Orn., 2ded., i, 1820, p. Ixiii (type, Hirundo viridis Temminc'k) . 



As a consequence of this change in the generic name, the family name Procniatidaj 

 (Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xviii, no. 1076, June 24, 1896, 449) must be changed 

 to Tersidic or Tersinidse, according to which of the two names, Tersa or Tersina, are 

 adopted. 



