HOW BIRDS ARE NAMED. 



Birds have two kinds of names. One is a common, vernacular, or 

 popular name; the other is a technical or scientific name. The first is 

 usually given to the living bird by the people of the country it inhabits. 

 The second is applied to specimens of birds by ornithologists who 

 classify them. 



Common names in their origin and use know no law. Technical 

 names are bestowed under the system of nomenclature established by 

 Linnaeus and their formation and application are governed by certain 

 definite, generally accepted rules. The Linnaean system, as it is now 

 employed by most American ornithologists, provides that a bird, in ad- 

 dition to being grouped in a certain Class, Order, Family, etc., shall 

 have a generic and specific name which, together, shall not be applied 

 to any other animal. 



Our Robin, therefore, is classified and named as follows: 



CLASS AVES, Birds. 



ORDER PASSERES, Perching Birds. 



Sub-order Oscines, Singing Perching Birds. 



Family Turdidce> Thrushes, Solitaires, Stonechats, Bluebirds, etc. 



Sub-family Turolimz, Thrushes. 



Genus, Merula y Thrushes. 



Species, migratoria, American Robin. 



The Robin's distinctive scientific name, therefore, which it alone 

 possesses, is Merula migratoria. There are numerous other members 

 of the genus Merula, but not one of them is called migratoria, and this 

 combination of names, therefore, is applied to only one bird. 



It should also be observed that, under what is known as the 'Law of 



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