74 TiiK Wilson Bulletin— No. G3. 



use of tliis name in 1859, 18(55 and 1874, and is followed by 

 'i'runihull, l)re\vcr in 1875, Ridgvvay in. 1881, IMaynard and 

 Sharp. Cones hovers uncertainly between Muscicapa or 

 Afyiodhcfcs 'uiimita in 18G8 and Myiodioctcs? minutns in 

 1878. ATlcn follows I5onaparte's IVilsonia mUiuta in 1864, 

 18()r) and 1870, but reverts to Myiodioctcs in 1878. Cpues 

 retained Muscicapa niinuta in 1872, remarking that it is con- 

 jectured to belong' to the g'cnus Myiodioctcs, but asserting 

 that this can hardly be, two white wing bands being a 

 character iiiut shown in that genus ; and rejects IVilsonia be- 

 cause preoccupied in botany and also used in entomology. 

 He accepts Myiodioctcs in 1878, however; but in April, 1880, 

 declares. "If the use of a genus name im botany does not 

 jM-eclude its acceptance in zoology, IVilsonia should replace 

 Myiodioctcs And.," and he apparently decides that it does not, 

 for he uses it three years later in New England Bird life, in 

 fact he liad already used it in the first edition of that work 

 in 187-") ; and Ridgway had clearly set his stamp of approval 

 on the name in his catalogue issued the same year as the 

 question was raised by Coues. Stejneger in 1884 concurs : 

 "If the name IVilSrvMi (Bonaparte, 1838) cannot be rejected, 

 because preoccupied in botany, it will havie to take precedence 

 of Myiodioctcs A'ud. 183!)." Heretofore the controversy has 

 been chiefly on the generic name, but in 1885 Ridgway sub- 

 stituted the specific name Microccphahi for that of Baird's 

 m-iiiiiftis. the latter ])roving to be preoccupied, and reviving 

 Nuttall's genus Sylvania: and in the Hypothetical List of the 

 first two editions of the A. C). U. Check-List, issued in 188G 

 and 1895, a tentative indorsement of Ridgway's proposition 

 is given in Sylvania ? microccphala. 



Chamberlain in 189] and Ridgway in 189fi repeating. 

 Coues comments upc.n this in the LTntenability of the Genus 

 Sylvania Nutt., in the Anh for'A'pril, 1897, and effectually 

 disposes of the name : " ]\Iy tacit acc|uiescence in our use of 

 Sylvania has hitherto been simplv because I had no- special 

 occasion to notice the matter, and presumed that our com- 

 mittee had fcund the name tenable by oiir rules. But a 

 glance at Nuttall's INlan., T, 183?, p. 390, where the name is 



