730 PLANTAIN-EATER—-PLOVER 
the same style of coloration and being apparéntly of more arboreal 
habits. The sexes differ greatly in plumage, and the males have 
the skin round the eyes bare of feathers and carunculated.! 
PLANTAIN-EATER, Latham’s translation (Suppl. tw. Gen. 
Synops. p. 104) in 1802 of Isert’s generic name Musophaga (Musa 
being the botanical name of the genus which contains the Plantains 
and Bananas) in 1788 (Deobacht. Gesellsch. naturf. Freunde, iil. pp. 
16-20, pl. 1), see TouRACO. 
PLANT-CUTTER, Latham’s rendering in 1802 (Suppl. ii. Gen. 
Synops. p. 212) of Phytotoma, the generic name given by Molina in 
1782 (Sagg. Stor. Nat. Chili, p. 254; Eng. transl. 1809, i. p. 210) 
to a bird called, from its harsh and broken cry, “ Rara” by the 
people of Chili, who bear it no goodwill from its habit of cutting 
off growing plants close to the ground with its strongly-serrated bill, 
often, says the latter, from sheer wantonness, without eating a 
single leaf, and it is said to be also very destructive to the buds of 
trees. For a long while classed among the /ringillidx, Musophagidx 
or Tanagridzx, its ‘complete difference from any one of these Families 
became at. last evident, and, chiefly from the position of the song- 
muscles,? it is now regarded as forming a Family of its own, 
Phytotomidz, one of the undeveloped or lower forms of PASSERES so 
abundant in and so characteristic of South America—not to say 
Patagonia. Mr. Sclater (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. pp. 406-408) recog- 
nizes 3 more species—P. angustirostris from Bolivia, P. raimondu 
from the west coast of northern Peru, and P. ruéila of the Argen- 
tine territory and Patagonia, where it is common, according to 
Mr. Hudson, who gives (Argent. Orn. p. 164, pl. viii.) a brief but 
lively account of its habits, and pretty figures of both sexes. 
PLATYSTERN Ai, Nitzsch’s name, first published in 1840 
(Pterylographia, p. 170), for what Merrem had already termed 
RAtTITA. 
PLOVER, French Pluvier, Old French Plovier, which doubtless 
has its origin in the Latin pluvia, rain (as witness the German 
equivalent Legenpfeifer, Rain-fifer); but the connexion of ideas 
between the words therein involved, so that the former should 
have become a bird’s name, is doubtful. Belon (1555) says that 
the name Pluvier is bestowed “pour ce qu’on le prend mieux en 
temps pluvieux qu’en nulle autre saison,” which is not in accord- 
1 It may be remarked that nomenclatural purists, objecting to the names 
Pitta and Philepitia as ‘‘ barbarous,” call the former Colobwris and the latter 
Laictes. Brachywrus also has frequently been used for Pitta ; but is inadmis- 
sible, having been previously applied in another sense. 
? This fact was ascertained and published by Eyton (Zool. Voy. Beagle, Birds 
p. 153), from a specimen brought home by Mr. Darwin. 
