Burns — On Alexander Wilson. 137 



seldom accurate ; therefore it is small wonder he erred re- 

 peatedly. His nomenclature is a mixture of Linnaeus, Ed- 

 wards. Catesby and his own. ' Unlike Wilson, he seemed 

 never at a loss for a name, and if he had more than one oc- 

 casion to refer to a species, he seldom repeated the name he 

 had g'iven it, but produced another. Hence we have Colyiii- 

 bus colubriiiits ct caiida cloir^ata, the, snake bird of Florida= 

 Anhinga aiihiiiga, Anhinya : Mclcogris Amcricanus et occi- 

 dciitalis=M. gallopoz'o nicrriaiiii, Merriam's Turkey; Falco 

 aqiiilimis ct major caiida fcrrcgijico, the great eagle hawk=: 

 Butco borcalis, Red-tailed Hawk; /'. rcgiilis ct maximus, 

 the great gray ea.g\e=:Halicvctiis Iciicoccphahis, Bald Eagle ; 

 Strix acclaniator ct vaviojts, the hooting o\\\^=Syri\tui varinm, 

 Barred Owl; Capriiiiitlgiis litcifugiis ct nifiis, the great bull 

 bat or chuck wills widow. ^= A iitrostoiinis caroliucnsis, Chuck- 

 wills-widow ; Giirnilis cv.tstralis ct Motacilla trochiUis^=Ictcria 

 ■z'ircns, Yellow-breasted Chat; Motacilla pahistris ct rcgiilus 

 atrofiiscus iiiinor, or marsh wrcu=:Tclinatodytcs pahistris. 

 Long-billed Marsh Wren; Tardus inclodcs ct miiior^Turdus 

 uwistcVmus, Wood Thrush ; and perhaps others. 



Not only Wilson, but Barton. Mcillot and Audubon 

 quarried in the ruins of his nomenclature. His list of 215 

 nominal species, are by no means all identifiable. He did 

 not understand the various changes of plumage some of our 

 birds are subject to. in one or more instances dififerentiated 

 the sexes of a species, and the confusion was not lessened by 

 the more than occasional employment of established technical 

 terms not applicable to the species under consideration. Ac- 

 cording to Cones about half are new. and subtracting a num- 

 ber unciuestionably derived from other sources, though mis- 

 applied, and repetition or multiplication through ignorance 

 of variation in plumage, the number is still large and con- 

 tains several unknown to Wilson. It is also evident that 

 some one must have imposed upon "Puc Puggy" (the 

 Flower Hunter), as he was known to the Seminoles. in the 

 instance of the so-called J^nltur sacra, the painted or white- 

 tailed vulture, which he tells us fed upon roasted lizards, 

 snakes and frogs, therefore dependent upon the occasional 



