INTRODUCTION. 
imagine it to belong to a certain species, at last believe it to 
be such, and end by placing the name in their note-book, to 
appear in due time in print. 
The only Avay to avoid such errors is never to include any 
bird in a list except when actually obtained and identified. 
It often happens, also, that the bird seen and included is one 
which it would be quite impossible to distinguish from 
another closely allied species without handling them both. 
These remarks may, no doubt, appear very invidious ; but 
it is want of accuracy in such matters which renders utterly 
futile any attempt to make out the distribution of birds. 
Local names, often trivial and unimportant, must generally 
be accepted cum grano sails; for, unless long resident and 
conversant with the language of the country, the compiler is 
apt to fall into the same class of errors as those of the cele- 
brated Count Smorltork, who would probably have written 
the English name of the Curlew according to the story told 
of a gunner in the Eastern Counties, who, when asked by a 
portly old citizen, '' What do you call those birds ? " replied, 
" Bless you, Curlews we generally calls 'em ; but when we're 
vexed with 'em, we calls 'em beggars." These vernacular 
names are most useful, of course, in the case of the more 
common species, and in Andalucia are, in many instances, of 
Arabic derivation, relics of the Moorish occupation and of 
days when under their rule Spain was flourishing, when all 
that is worth seeing was built, all that is artificially good 
being remnants of the work of the then industrious Moors. 
Where are the latter now as a nation ? 
As a proof of the inaccuracj'^ of local nomenclature, a single 
name is often applied to several species, sometimes not even 
belonging to the same genus. Thus Aguila, Aguilucho, 
according to the ideas of the individual, may be any of the 
Diurnal Accipitres, from a Lammergeyer to a Lesser Kestrel ; 
and they are even occasionally used to designate the Raven ! ! 
So Biijo applies to all Owls, Culiblanco to all Wheatears, 
Chorlito, the real name of the Golden Plover, is used for 
various Waders; while Pitillo, Frailecillo, Andarios, Correrios 
are indefinite names applicable to any small Waders and some 
