CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 119 



759. Phalacrocorax violaceus resplendens (Aud.) Rklg. b — . c — . R646a. 



Baird's Cormorant, 



760. Plotus anhinga L. b 628. c 53G. r 649. 



Anhinga; Darter; Snake-bird. 



761. Tachypetes aquilus (L.) V. b 619. c 537. R 639. 



Frigate Bird ; Man-of-^var Bird. 



762. Phaethon sethereus L. b — . c — . r ess. (?!) 



Red-billed Tropic-bird. 



763. Phaethon flavirostris Brandt, b 629. c S38. R 654. 



Yellow-billed Tropic-bird. 



764. Stercorarius skua (Bilinn.) Coues. B 652. c 539. R 606. 



Skua. 



.765. Stercorarius pomatorhinus (Temm.) Lawr. B 653. c 540. R 697. 

 Pomatorhine Jager. 



759. P. V. res-plen'-dens. Lat. resplendens, resplendent, splendid, or lustrous ; respJendeo or 



splendeo, I shine, gleam. Splendor is derived by some etymologists from <r7rA.7j(i')5o's, 

 live coals. 



Not in the orig. ed. Since recognized by Ridgway, Pr. Nat. Mus., iii, 1880, p. 222. 

 Farallone Islands. 



760. Plo'-tus an-hin'-ga. Gr. irXcorSs, being a good swimmer; from ttAcoco or irAe'co, I swim, 



navigate ; Lat. plotiis ; and very early applied, in ornithology, to divers swimming birds. 

 — Anhinga is a barbarous word, from the Portuguese anhimt, and equivalent to the 

 Lat. anguina, snaky; unguis, a snake; very well applied to this curious bird, wliich in its 

 subaqueous excursions strangely resembles a swimming serpent. See Coues, Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, iii, 1878, p. 101. We should like to substitute the Latin form of the word, 

 but that would probably be going too far. 



761. Tach-y'-pet-es a'-quil-us. Gr. TaxvTTiT-ns, Lat. tachypetes, flying rapidly; raxvs, swift, 



and TZfTofxai, I fly. — Lat. aquilus, swarthy, dark-colored. The word is vaguely sup- 

 posed by most persons to have something to do with aquila, an eagle, in consideration 

 of the raptorial prowess of tliis piratical high-flyer ; but it would in that case be cither 

 aquila, substantive, an eagle, or aquilinus, adjective, aquiline. Aquila and aquilus are 

 doubtless the same word, etymologically ; but the present specific name has nothing 

 further to do with the genus Aquila, which see, No. 532. 



762. P. ae-thg'-r€-Qs. Gr. alOfpios, Lat. eethereus, etherial, relating to the ale-l]p, (tther, ether, or 



serene upper air, as opposed to ai]p, aer, tlie lower aerial region ; the birds of this genus 

 being noted for soaring aloft. Th. aWco, &a). 



Not in the orig. ed. If there be no mistake in identification, this species has 

 straggled to Newfoundland. See Freke, Comp. List B. of Eur. and N. A., p. 44 (repaged 

 from Proc. Roy. Soc. Dubl., 1879). 



763. Pha'-e-thon flla-vl-ros'-trls. Gr. ^aeOwv, Lat. Phaethon, a proper name, an epithet of the 



sun ; Phaethon having once undertaken to drive the cliariot of the sun, his father Helios ; 

 well applied to these highly aerial birds of the Tropics. Sometimes very wrongly 

 written Pha;thon, and even Phceton. — 'La.t.Jlacirostris, yellow-billed. 



764. Ster-c6r-a'-ri-Qs skQ'-a". Lat. stercorarius, having to do with ordure, a scavenger; stercus, 



excrement ; from the filthy habits of the bird. — Skua is tiie name applied to the bird 

 by the Faeroese. 



765. S. po-ma-tQ-rhin'-us. Gr. Troiyua, genitive iruj^aroj, a flap, lid, cover ; and /5^x, genitive Rico's, 



