102 Miscellaneous. 



Prestwich, The species are few and call for little remark, except 

 that the climate was not Arctic. They are all common British 

 forms. 



The collection from Grays consists of leaves, already partly 

 determined by Gaudin and Herr, though nnpuhlished, and some 

 lumps of clay, out of which the Author washed a few seeds. The 

 flora points clearly to a temperate climate and mild winters. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



" Meshes." 



The name Mesiks has been used in systematic zoology for no less 

 than four different genera, belonging to different classes of animals, 

 as anyone may learn for himself from Scuddcr's ' Nomenclator 

 Zoologicus.' " Thus bad begins, but worse remains behind *' ; for 

 three of these names are actually current. To one man Mesites 

 conveys tbe idea of a bird, for another it means a weevil, while 

 some of us have long known by that name nothing but a peculiar 

 paliieozoic echinoderm. Which is the real Simon Pure? 



In vol. iv. part 2 of C. J. Schonherr's ' Genera et Species Curcu- 

 lionidum,' on p. 104;-{, Mesites was ])ropot^ed for a genus of weevils, 

 type M. jtcdlidipennis, by C. H. Boheman. This volume was pub- 

 lif-lied at Paris by Roret and at Leipzig by Fleischer, and the date 

 on the titlepage of the part is lb38. An advertisement of Roret's 

 on the back of the half-title indicates that the book was issued in 

 January of that year ; the date, 1 Eebr. 1838, attached to the 

 preface of vol. v. coniirms this. 



But in April 1838 Isid. Geoffrey St.-Hilaire applied the same 

 name to a kind of sun-bittern from Madagascar (J7. vnriegata). 

 The chief references are : — Comptes Eendus, vi. p. 443, April 9 ; 

 Kevue Zoologique, 1838, April, p. 50; and Ann. Sci. Nat. ix. 

 p. 189. In the 'Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,' 

 vol. xxiii. p. 244, 1894, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe maintained this name, 

 and even based on it a family name, Mesitidse, as had already been 

 done, though in a somewhat different sense, by C. L. Bonaparte. 

 Boheman's priority to Geoffrey might conceivably be disputed by 

 a prejudiced ornithologist, could such a one be found, were it not 

 for the evidence of Eeichenbach, who, on p. 6 of his ' Handbuch 

 der Columbarise,' 1850, altered the name of the bird to Mescenas, 

 since " Der Name Mesites war um ein Jahr friiherdurch Schonherr 

 schon an eiue Eiisselkafergattung vergeben." It was probably for 

 the same reason that Bonaparte, according to Gray (' Hand-list Gen. 

 and Sp. Birds Brit. Mus.' p. 267, 1809), changed Mesites to Mesi- 

 tornis in 1855 ; but whether this was ever niore than a MS. name 

 is uncertain, since no reference can be found, and its alleged author 

 still used Mesites on May 12, 1856 (' Comptes Rendus,' xlii. p. 876). 

 In April 1842 L. Jenyns (' Zoology, Voyage of H.M.S. ' Beagle," 

 part iv. Eish, p. 118) applied the name Mesites to three new species 



