of some Birds' Names. 451 



genus should be called Ortalis^ as the only nomiuative form 

 of the feminine noun. 



In 1822 F. Boie (Isis^ p. 550) proposed Cotile as a generic 

 name for Hirundo 7nparia, L. But, unfortunately, in 1826 

 (Isis, p. 971) he spelt the genus Cotyle ; although in the same 

 column we find " Cynnyris" and '' Aegythalus," it is only the 

 first misprint that has bred lasting mischief. Of course 

 Gloger (Naturg. der Vogel Europa's, 1834, p. 411) knew and 

 accepted the right spelling, and so did G. R. Gray (Hand-list, 

 1869, i. p. 73). But the learned Prince Bonaparte (Consp. 

 Gen. Av. 1850, i. p. 341) indorsed Cotyle, and thus gave 

 colour to the wild guess of Agassiz (Nomencl. Zool.) that 

 the name came from kotv\7} = q. cup. It is sad to see Dr. 

 Coues {' Birds of the Colorado Valley,' 1878, p. 370) being 

 thus misled into suggesting an analogy between a cup, such 

 as so many other birds' nests form, and the deep cylindrical 

 hole in which Sand-Martins commonly build. In reality, 

 Kcori\d<i is a name used by Anacreon (99) for the Swallow ; 

 and KcoTtXa is a familiar classical adjective, meaning '^prat- 

 tling," as KcoTtWeiv means " to prattle." "When Boie first 

 wrote Cotile he undoubtedly had in his mind this idea of 

 "twittering ;" and all the confusion about a "cup" has arisen 

 from a subsequent misprint. 



In P. Z. S. 1879, p. 146, Mr. Sclater describes a new Hum- 

 ming-bird as Thaumasius taczanowskii, and he appends the 

 following note : — 



" Hoc nomen ex 0avfidaLo<i, admiratione dignus, derivatum, 

 * Thaumasius,' nee ' Thaumatias ' melius scribatur." 



But when I look up the history of this genus Thaumatias, 

 I find what seems to be its first appearance in a " Note sur 

 les Trochilides, par M. Charles Lucien Bonaparte " in the 

 ' Comptes Rendus ' for 1850, vol. xxx. p. 382, where it is intro- 

 duced as genus " 9. Thaumatias a pour type TV. Thaumatias, 

 L." It must have been by some printer's error that the n 

 was dropped; for Linnaeus (Syst. Nat. 1766, i. p. 489) dis- 

 tinctly has " Trochilus Thaumantias "*. His use of a capital 



* I use the capital initial to the specific name here advisedly ; not so 

 much because the last edition of the Stricklandian code (Mr. Sclater 's, 



