QO General Notes. ' I 



Auk 

 Jan. 



generic name of the House Wren for reasons then in our estimation out 

 of place to explain. In its adoption, however, we followed the accepted 

 methods of scientific nomenclature. 



Vieillot was first to separate Wrens from Warblers when he in 1S07 

 (Hist. Natui-elle des Oiseaux, p. 52) restricted the name Troglodytes to 

 the true Wrens, including the European Wren {Troglodytes parvulus) as 

 well as our American species aedon, which is the only one he deals with 

 in full, for the reason he was writing only on North American birds. He 

 specified no type, and if he had not stated the inclusion of the European 

 bird the mere fact that he took the specific name of the European species 

 for his generic term would imply that he included it. In 1S16 in his 

 'Analyse' (p. 45) he restricted Thriothorus, and made the type ariindina- 

 ceus. Rennie in 1831 (Montagu's Diet. British Birds, 2nd. ed., p- 570), 

 considering Troglodytes, a word meaning a cave dweller, not applicable 

 for the Wrens called them AnortJitira. This simple name substitution to 

 suit Rennie' s taste of course does not affect the type, and he made no 

 restrictions whatever. We have then next to go to Prince Maximilian 

 (Beitr. Naturg. Bras., Ill, 1830, p. 742), who suggested Hylemathrous for a 

 South American species, T. furvus, our House Wren aedon, and also 

 included in his separation Tliryothorus ariindinaceus of Vieillot, which he 

 considered = to Cistothorus paliistris, and not as now understood, T. 

 ludoviciana. This name Hylemathrous was also in 1S60 accepted and 

 restricted by Cabanis (Jour, fiir Ornith., VIII, p. 406, 407). 



Hylemathrous then being used for the House Wren leaves Troglodytes 

 by elimination for the European Wren and our Winter Wren, which is 

 congeneric with the European species. 



Prof. Newton in his 'Dictionary' (p. 105 1) in discussing this case says: 

 " A few, who ignore not only common sense but also the accepted rules 

 of scientific nomenclature, by a mistaken view of Vieillot' s intention in 

 establishing the genus Troglodytes, reserve that term for some American 

 species — -which can hardly be generically separated from the European 

 form. — and have attempt'^d to fix on the latter the generic term Anorthura, 

 which is its strict equivalent, and was proposed by Rennie on grounds that 

 are inadmissible." — Reginald Heber Howe, Jr., Longzvood, Mass. 



Nesting of the Great Carolina Wren in Connecticut. — " Come up here 

 to-morrow morning and I will show you a bird's nest such as you never 

 saw before in the State of Connecticut" — such was the tenor of the mes- 

 sage which the mail brought me from Chester, Conn., last 15th of July, 

 under the hand of Mr. C. H. Watrous, that stirred my oological instincts. 

 I have a list of one hundred species whose nidification has fallen under my 

 observation in Connecticut, and here was an offer to introduce to me 

 No. loi. Of course I went, a passenger of the first morning train on the 

 Valley Road, which left me on the station platform of that enterprising 

 town which lies on the west shore of the Connecticut River, about ten 

 miles from its mouth. It was not in the wild woods, as I expected, but 



