KEMAEKS ON THE USE OF NAMES. 



$ 1. ETYMOLOGY, OR DERIVATION. 



Etymology^ the IrvixoXoyCa of the Greeks, consists in tracing tlie derivation of a 

 word back to the root from which it springs, explaining its formation, inflection, and 

 application, thereby more clearly illustrating its virtue or quality than can be done 

 1)y merely considering any one of the various meanings it ma}' in time acquire. 

 For a good illustration of this definition, see the word CardinaUs. 



The large majority of the scientific names of birds are Latin or Greek words, or 

 modern compounds of such, derived conformably to the rules for the construction of 

 classic terms. In general, therefore, it is easy to give the exact meaning of the 

 names in their original acceptation, and to point out their applicabilit}' as terms 

 descriptive of the objects designated. On the whole, it has not been our design to 

 go be^'ond a good fair definition of these Greek and Latin words, considering that all 

 practical purposes are thus subserved. Many of the classic words being themselves 

 derivatives, and the field of philological inquu-y being boundless, it was necessary 

 to keep within certain limits ; and we have therefore seldom found it advisable, even 

 were it practicable, in a case like the present, to trace words back of their recog- 

 nized stems. Y^et there will be found in the present little treatise, it is believed, 

 much philological information of interest and actual value to all who desire to be 

 put at their ease in the use of the Greek and Latin names of birds. 



Many pure Greek or Latin names of birds known in classic times have been 

 transferred in ornitholog}^ in a wholly arbitrary manner, to totally different species. 

 Thus the Trochilus of the ancients was an Egyptian PloA'^er ; in ornithological nomen- 

 clature, it is a genus of American Humming-birds. So also, many proper names, 

 and many of the epithets which classic writers were so fond of bestowing, have been 

 adopted as generic or specific names of birds, with little reason or with none, except 

 the will of the namer. The genus lache has no more to do with the Greek battle- 

 cry than the name of Smith or Brown has to do with trade or color. 



