26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Besides the foregoing, Wilson described a number of supposed 

 novelties from the neighborhood of Philadelphia, such as the 

 Bartramian Sandpiper, Black Hawk, Nighthawk, Crossbill, 

 Swamp Sparrow, Tree Swallow, Warbling and Yellow-throated 

 Vlreos, Cape May Warbler and Water Thrush; and while Phila- 

 delphia remains the type locality for the names he proposed, 

 these have become mere synonyms of names proposed by others 

 a few years earlier in works to which Wilson had not access. 

 Many of his vernacular names, however, such as Cape May 

 Warbler, Swamp Sparrow, etc., still persist. 



Of the discovery of the former, he says "obtained in a maple 

 swamp in Cape May Co., not far from the coast, by Mr. George 

 Ord." The earlier specimen figured by Edwards and named by 

 Gmelin came on to a vessel at sea " ten leagues off the Florida 

 coast," a much less satisfactory type locality ! Of the Bar- 

 tramian Sandpiper, lie says : "This bird being, as far as I can 

 discover, a new species, undescribed by any former author, I 

 have honored it with the name of my very worthy friend, near 

 whose botanic gardens, on the banks of the river Schuylkill, I 

 first found it." 



A number of other names proposed by Wilson were for birds 

 that he well knew had been described before, but not realizing 

 the force of the rule of priority, he felt at liberty to rename any 

 species whose earlier appellations did not suit his taste. Gener- 

 ally, however, Wilson took these names from Bartram's manu- 

 script or from his " Travels " in an attempt to force into use the 

 names proposed by his friend and counsellor, who was un- 

 doubtedly the first to discover a large number of our birds, but 

 who unfortunately published no descriptions of them, even 

 though he coined names for them. 



Bonaparte apparently named but one new species from our 

 district, namely, the 



Stilt Sandpiper, Mkropalma himantopus (Bonap. ). In a 

 paper read Nov. 6, 1826, before the New York Lyceum, and 

 published in the "Annals" of that society, vol. ii, p. 157, he 

 says: "This new species I shot from a flock at Long Branch, 

 N. J., in the middle of July." This clearly gives the bird a 

 title to a place as a type species from this region. I have heard 

 this species called Bonaparte Snipe on Long Island. 



