8 + 



General Notes. [* u n k 



consistent the Committee, in which I have always heen in a minority of 

 one on this subject, must eradicate these two names, thus giving Bartram 

 his coup de grace. 



(i.) After Bartram's Vultur atratus of 1791 the first tenable specific 

 name of the Black Vulture would appear to be urubu Yieill., Ois. Am. 

 Sept. 1S07, pi. 2; which, joined with the generic name Catharista Vieill., 

 Anal. 1816, p. 21, yields Catharista urubu Vieill., Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. 

 Nat. XII, 1817, p. 401, as the required onyin. 



(2.) After Bartram's Corvus floridanus of 1791, the next name of the 

 Florida Jay appears to be Garrulus cyaneus Vieill., Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. 

 Nat. XII, 1817, p. 476. This has been cited as a nomen nudum, as by 

 Baird, 1858; that it is not such, but rests upon an unmistakable though 

 not very good description is evident from the following verbatim copy 

 of Vieillot's account: " Le Geai azurin, Garrulus cyaneus Vieill., se 

 trouve aux Florides et ne penetre point dans le nord des Etats-Unis; du 

 moins je ne l'y ai pas recontre'. On ne pent le confondre avec le geai 

 bleu huppe, puisqu'il est plus petit, qu'il n'a point d'aigrette sur la tete, 

 et que tout son plumage est generalement d'un bleu d'azur. Latham le 

 rapporte au geai de Steller, mais celui-ci est huppe et ne porte pas le 

 merae vetement." Whence the onym of the Florida Jay would be Aph- 

 elocoma cyauea. The next name in order is G. ccernlescens Vieill., ibid. 

 p. 4S0, the description of which seems to indicate the same bird, but the 

 tvpe locality, " Kentucky," is beyond this Jay's now known range. No 

 doubt, however, attaches to " An Account of the Florida Jay, of Bartram," 

 by Ord, in Journ. Acad. Phila. I, 1818, pp. 345-347, where Vieillot's name 

 Garrulus ca-rulescens is adopted. Thus we have only to decide whether 

 the bird shall be known as Aphelocoma cyauea or A. carrulescens. We 

 next come upon two names by the same author and of ostensibly coequal 

 dates. These are Corvus (Garrulus) floridanus Bp., Ann. Lye. N. Y., II, 

 1828, p. 58, and Garrulus floridanus Bp., Am. Orn. II, 1S28, p. 59, pi. xiv, 

 fig. 1. Part I, pp. 7-1 2S, of the paper in the Annals has actual priority 

 over the 2d vol. of the Am. Orn.; it was "read" Jan. 24, 1826, and 

 published apparently in March, 1826; so that, if we could use floridanus 

 as the specific name, it would be accreditable to Bonaparte, after throw- 

 ing out Bartram. 



(3.) It is a necessarv corollary of the foregoing proposition, that the 

 use of the binomial Corvus floridanus by Bonaparte in 1826, and subse- 

 quently by Audubon, for the Florida Jay, precludes its use for the 

 Florida Crow in the form Corvus americanus var, 'floridanus Baird, B. N. 

 A. 1S58, p. 56S. The latter may, therefore, be renamed C. a. pascuus. 

 This is a good Latin word, meaning of or relating to pastures; but I 

 intend it to connote the same as floridanus in this instance, with allu- 

 sion to the Spanish name of the country, said to have been called Pascua 

 Florida or Pascua de Flores by Ponce de Leon, because he discovered 

 it on Paschal or Easter Day of 15 12. — Elliott Coues, Washington, 

 D. C. 



