32 THE GENERIC NAME PASSERINA. 
NOTE II. 
ON THE GENERIC NAME PASSERINA VIEILLOT 
BY 
Dr. E. D. VAN OORT. 
One of these days I accidentally met with a description 
of a plant from the Pyrenees by Mr. Ramond under the 
name of Passerina nivalis; this paper has been published 
in „Bulletin des sciences par la Société philomatique, n° 41, 
Paris, Thermidor an 8 de la République (1792)’. Of course 
the Snow-bunting involuntary came in my mind when 
reading that name, for I have mentioned, in 1908, this 
bird under that name in my list of the birds of the Nether- 
lands; I then followed, in naming this species, Mr. R. 
Ridgway (Auk XV, 1898, p. 324), without inquiring into 
the matter, as at that time Vieillot’s „Analyse d'une nou- 
velle Ornithologie élémentaire, Paris 1816”, could not be 
consulted by me. A copy of Vieillot’s book being now in 
my possession, I see that, when Vieillot’s name of Passerina 
could be used in Ornithology, it should be the generic 
name of the Painted Finches of North America (type the 
» Ministre’ — Tanagra cyanea L.). But the generic name 
Passerina may not be used in Zoology, as already Lin- 
naeus has first occupied it in Botany. The generic name 
of the Snow-bunting is Plectrophenar Stejneger (Proc. U. 
S. Nat. Mus. V, 1882, pp. 32, 33), Plectrophanes of B. Meyer 
1815 being a synonym of Calcarius Bechstein 1803, as 
pointed out by Dr. Stejneger. The Painted Finches must 
be placed in the genus Cyanospiza Baird 1858. 
Leyden Museum, January 1910. 
Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XXXII - 
