Orthography of Names of the Natades. 237 
in the Roman alphabet. . . . should be rendered by the 
corresponding Roman letters or combinations of letters. 
Remarks.—The German 0. . . may be rendered . 
byes) oes 
The above canons and recommendations may be supple- 
mented by the following rule, for certain cases not considered 
by the authors of the Code: 
SUPPLEMENTARY RULE.— When the gender of a word 
used as a generic name can not be decided by any etymolog- 
ical rule, priority of use shall settle the question. 
Remarks.—There are two generic names, Lampszlis and 
Glabaris, to which no linguistic rules can be applied for 
determining their gender, except so far that neither of them 
can be a neuter. Nor is there any rule in the A. O. U. Code 
by which it can be decided whether they are to be considered 
as masculines or feminines. But Rafinesque, who invented 
the name Lampsilis,* described under that new genus three 
species, one of which, Z. ovata, shows that he meant it to be 
afeminine. William Stimpson, in his “Shells of New Eng- 
land,’’ used it likewise as feminine, and the various later 
authors who have treated it as a masculine are in error. 
J. E. Gray coined the name G/adaris without ever using it 
coupled to any specific name. The first author who used it in 
such combinations was Von Ihering. In his ‘ Najaden von 
S. Paulo,’ 1893, he referred half a score of species to that 
genus using the name as feminine, and this priority of use 
must be accepted as decisive. 
Professor Walter Miller, now of the Tulane University in 
New Orleans, published, some years ago, a most excellent 
guide for the compounding of names from Latin and Greek 
roots,t which ought to be carefully perused by Zoologists and 
*Monographie des Coquilles Bivalves Fluviatiles de la Riviére Ohio. Bruxelles, 
1820. 
{Scientific names of Latin and Greek Derivation.—Proc. Cal. Ac. Sc., Third Ser, 
Zoology, Vol. I., No. 3.—San Francisco, 1897, 
3 
