194 Correspondence. \_Ktri\ 



may be given by Tom, Dick or Harry, and is not published beyond a 

 limited district. Now, in spite of the fact that the scientist may have 

 already named an animal, the aforesaid T., D., and H. will exercise their 

 inborn right to name any creature that brings itself conspicuously to their 

 notice, and this is the normal way for an animal to gain a vulgar name — 

 the way by which thousands have already gained them, — some of them 

 more than one — as Mr. Gurdon Trumbull has so well shown. This is 

 to be regretted, but it is not a remedy to have a scientist add still another. 



The assumption that a vulgar name is necessarily more simple than the 

 scientific one is wholly fallacious. Let us take as an illustration some of 

 our flowering plants. Here we have such names as Geranium, Fuchia, 

 Dahlia, and Verbena, which can be placed in contrast with "Butter and 

 Eggs," "Bouncing Bets," "Love lies Bleeding," and a host of other mon- 

 strosities. Among practical working farmers, I have heard Poa praie/isis 

 used as a shorter and better name than " Kentucky Blue-grass." 



There is one other point on which I would like to say a word. I cannot 

 see the propriety of speaking of scientific names as Latin names. It 

 seems to me they are no more Latin than are such words as conduit, 

 aqiiaduct, locomotive, benevolent, and a thousand other common words of 

 the English language. They are supposed to be of the Latin form, in their 

 terminations, at least, but in other parts they often present combinations 

 of letters, the very sight of which would make Cicero turn in his grave. 



Right here is one point on which I think I can agree with Mr. Hornaday, 

 and that is in demanding that names shall be made shorter and not contain 

 a lot of letters which cannot be sounded in pronouncing them. It is 

 unfortunate that scientists have been too fond of indulging in sesqnipe- 

 dalia verba, which have been the greatest cause of complaint. It seems 

 to me that the difficulty of which Mr. Hornaday complains could be easily 

 obviated by allowing all scientific names to be pronounced exactly as if 

 they were English words, without any regard to the rules of Latin pro- 

 nunciation, and permitting other nations to follow a similar law. 



F. E. L. Beal. 



Wasking'ton, D. C. 



To THE Editors of ' The Auk ' : — 



Dear Sirs, — As one of the sinners named by Mr. Hornaday in the 

 January 'Auk' I ask for a little space. I am in entire sympathy with 

 Mr. Hornaday in his grievance of the omission of vernacular names of 

 new species, but really should not have been included in his list of 

 culprits, as a reference to my original description would have shown. 

 Reference to the original descriptions in many others of the cases 

 mentioned shows the charge to be well founded, however. The last 



