730 PLANTAIN-EA TER-PLO VER 



the same style of coloration and being apparently of more arboreal 

 habits. The sexes difter greatly in plumage, and the males have 

 the skin round the eyes bare of feathers and carunculated.^ 



PLANTAIN -EATER, Latham's translation {Su-ppl. ii. Gen. 

 Synops. p. 104) in 1802 of Isert's generic name Musophaga [Musa 

 being the botanical name of the genus which contains the Plantains 

 and Bananas) in 1788 (Beohacht. Gesellsch. naturf. Freunde, iii. pp. 

 16-20, pi. 1), see Touraco. 



PLANT-CUTTER, Latham's rendering in 1802 (Suppl. ii Gen. 

 Synops. p. 212) of Phytotoma, the generic name given by Molina in 

 1782 {Sagg. Sto7\ Nat. Chili, p. 254; Eng. transl. 1809, i. p. 210) 

 to a bird called, from its harsh and broken cry, "Rara" by the 

 people of Chili, who bear it no goodwill from its habit of cutting 

 off growing plants close to the ground with its strongly-serrated bill, 

 often, says the latter, from sheer wantonness, without eating a 

 single leaf, and it is said to be also very destructive to the buds of 

 trees. For a long while classed among the Fringillidx, Mnsophagidss 

 or Tanagridse, its complete difference from any one of these Families 

 became at last evident, and, chiefly from the position of the song- 

 muscles,^ it is now regarded as forming a Family of its own, 

 Phytotomidse, one of the undeveloped or lower forms of Passeres so 

 abundant in and so characteristic of South America — not to say 

 Patagonia. Mr. Sclater {Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. pp. 406-408) recog- 

 nizes 3 more species — P. a.ngustirostris from Bolivia, P. raimondii 

 from the west coast of northern Peru, and P. rutila of the Argen- 

 tine territory and Patagonia, where it is common, according to 

 Mr. Hudson, who gives {Argent. Orn. p. 164, pi. viii.) a brief but 

 lively account of its habits, and pretty figures of both sexes. 



PLATYSTERN^, Nitzsch's name, first published in 1840 

 (Pterylographia, p. 170), for what Merrem had already termed 



RATITiE. 



PLOVER, French Pluvier, Old French Plovier, which doubtless 

 has its origin in the Latin j^hivia, rain (as witness the German 

 ecjuivalent Eegenpfeifer, Rain-fifer) ; but the connexion of ideas 

 between the words therein involved, so that the former should 

 have become a bird's name, is doubtful. Belon (1555) says that 

 the name Phmer is bestowed " pour ce qu'on le prend mieux en 

 temps pluvieux qu'en nulle autre saison," which is not in accord- 



^ It may be remarked that nomenclatural purists, objecting to the names 

 Pitta and Philepitta as "barbarous," call the former Colohuris and the latter 

 Paictes. Brachyiorus also has frequently been used for Pitta ; but is inadrais- 

 sible, having been previously applied in another sense. 



^ This fact was ascertained and published by Eyton {Zool. Voy. Beagle, Birds 

 p. 153), from a specimen brought home by Mr. Darwin. 



