58 THE NAMES 



continent can scarcely be used. But I have not 

 hesitated to devise names for such as have not 

 already received them, in the hope that they may 

 sometime be favorably received. Exception was 

 made to my first list on the ground that such 

 names should have a real popular value and ori- 

 gin ; and this objection is unquestionably valid. 

 But that attempt and the later one are only efforts 

 at the introduction of names which may hereafter 

 become as strictly popular, in a technical sense, as 

 those which have been given to certain common 

 butterflies in other parts of the world. They must 

 once have been named by some one, and the 

 practice is common among ornithologists ; only 

 recently Mr. Sclater was complimented in the 

 columns of "-Nature" for his" success and good 

 judgment in this matter. I have further support 

 in the fact that one finds among the early authors 

 on the continent of Europe many attempts of this 

 same kind, where common names have been ap- 

 plied which may or may not have come down to us 

 at the present time. Thus taking up the other day 

 the old work of Sepp on Dutch butterflies, I found 

 such names as " konings-mantel " (a curious vari- 

 ation from the German trauermantel) given to 

 antiopa, " distelvink " to cardui, '' nommer-vlin- 



