278 General Notes. [April 



white. It was in good physical condition and apparently well able to 

 join the majority of its species in the South had it so chosen. 



Mr. Dorr considered this a rare bird for Maine, especially so in the fall. 

 There are a number of fall and winter records for Massachusetts and Maine, 

 but I consider the occurrence sufficiently unusual to be worth recording. — 

 C. L. Phillips, Taunton, Mass. 



The Proper Generic Name of the Ruff. — The generic name now used 

 for the European Ruff is Machetes Cuvier (Regne Animal, I, 1817, p. 490; 

 type by monotypy, Tringa pugnax Linnseus). This name has been pre- 

 ferred over Pavoncella Leach (Syst. Cat. Indig. Mamm. and Birds Brit. 

 Mus., 1816, p. 29), because the latter was supposed to be a nomen nudum. 

 It was introduced by Leach, however, in combination with the specific 

 term pugnax, which is, of course, readily identifiable and of undoubted 

 application to the Ruff. The name is on exactly the same basis as Spatula 

 Boie (Isis, X, 1822, col. 564) and several other names proposed by him and 

 by other authors at various times. All these names have hitherto been 

 accepted without question as entirely warranted by both the International 

 and A. O. U. Codes of Nomenclature; and there is no more reason for 

 rejecting Pavoncella than any of the other names. 



The name Pavoncella, however, will not become the generic name of 

 the Ruff, as Dr. C. W. Richmond has already shown (Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., LIII, August 16, 1917, p. 581), and Mr. G. M. Mathews emphasized 

 (Austral Avian Record, III, No. 5, Dec. 28, 1917, p. 117). There is an 

 earlier name, Philomachus. proposed by an anonymous reviewer of Bech- 

 stein's Ornithologische Taschenbuch (Allgem. Lit.-Zeitung, 1804, Vol. II, 

 No. 168, June 8, 1S04, col. 542), the type of which is, by monotypy, Tringa 

 pugnax Linnseus. This name is proposed in a perfectly legitimate way 

 with a diagnosis and citation of species, and is, of course, not to be rejected 

 because anonymous. The name of the Ruff will, therefore, become Philo- 

 machus pugnax (Linnseus). — Harry C. Oberholser, Washington, D. C. 



Heteractitis versus Heteroscelus. — The generic name now in use for 

 the Wandering Tattler is Heteractitis Stejneger. 1 This term was pro- 

 posed as a substitute for Heteroscelus Baird, 2 because the latter was con- 

 sidered invalid on account of the prior Heteroscelis Latreille, instituted in 

 1829 for a genus of Coleoptera. According to our present rules of nomen- 

 clature, however, Heteroscelis does not preoccupy Heteroscelus, since the 

 two words differ not merely in grammatical termination, but have different 

 classical endings. Mr. G. M. Mathews a few years ago called attention 3 

 to the desirability of using Heteroscelus, but other authors seem generally 



i 'The Auk,* I, No. 3, July, 1884, p. 236. 



2 Rep. Expl. and Surv. R. R. Pac, IX, 1858, p. 734 (type by monotypy, Tolanus brevipes 

 VieiUot). 



3 Rirds of Australia, III, part 3, 1913, p. 206. 



