924 SUN-BITTERN 
“Surinamische Sonnenreyger,” Ardea helias, the first author to 
notice this form was Fermin, whose account of it, under the name 
of “ Oiseau de Soleil,” was published at Amsterdam in 1769 (Deser, 
ec. de Surinam, ii. p. 192), but was vague and meagre. In 1772, 
however, it was satisfactorily figured and described in Rozier’s 
Observations sur la Physique, dc. (v. pt. 1, p. 212, pl. 1), as the Petit 
Paon des roseawa—by which name it was known in Cayenne A 
few years later D’Aubenton figured it in his well-known series (Pl. 
enl. 782), and then in 1781 came Buffon (H. NV. Ois. vii. pp. 169, 
170, pl. xiv.), who, calling it “ Le Caurale? ou petit Paon des roses,” 
Sun-Birrern (Lurypyga helias). 
announced it as hitherto undescribed, and placed it among the Rails. 
In the same year appeared the above-cited paper by Pallas, who, 
notwithstanding his remote abode, was better informed as to its 
history than his great contemporary, whose ignorance, real or 
affected, of his fellow-countryman’s priority in the field is inexplic- 
able ; and it must have been by inadvertence that, writing “roses” 
for “roseaux,” Buffon turned the colonial name from one that had 
a good meaning into nonsense. In 1783 Boddaert, equally ignorant 
1 This figure and description were repeated in the later issue of this work in 
1777 (i. pp. 679-681, pl. 1). 
2 The name, he says, was intended to mean Rdle & queue, that is, a tailed 
Rail! 
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