228 General Notes. \jgfo 



only Maryland Yellowthroat I have found near Camden during three 

 winters of field work there. In 1904 the first of the season was seen 

 on March 14. In 1905 the first was seen on March 20. 



On January 25, 1906, I flushed a male Bachman's Finch (Peuccea aesti- 

 valis bachmanii) in a small grassy field, about thirty yards from a mixed 

 wood of pine and oak, near Camden, and secured it. This also is the first 

 winter example of its kind which I have found near Camden, and it has 

 also been sent to the United States National Museum. On February 23, 

 1906, I secured another male specimen in a briar thicket bordering a ditch 

 in an open field, my attention having been attracted to it by its call note. 

 It is possible that this February bird should be considered a spring arrival, 

 since spring begins in South Carolina in February. — Nathan Clifford 

 Brown, Portland, Maine. 



The Proper Generic Name for the Nightingale. — Since the propriety 

 of our change of the generic name of the Nightingale from A colon to Luscinia 

 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XXVIII, 1905, p. 895) has been recently questioned 

 (Sclater, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, XVI, December, 1905, pp. 39-41), it 

 may be well to set forth in more detail than before was thought necessary 

 the reason for this action. The generic names Aedon Forster (Synopt. Cat. 

 Brit. Birds, 1817, p. 53) and Luscinia Forster (ibid., p. 14) are of identical 

 applicability, both being without diagnosis, and having for type the same 

 species - — Luscinia megarhynchos Brehm. As Luscinia occurs thus some 

 39 pages anterior to Aedon it should be adopted. Whether or not Forster 

 intended to credit the name Luscinia to Leach makes no difference at all 

 in the necessity for its acceptance, provided it is a valid name, that it is 

 the earliest name for the genus, and that this 'Catalogue' is its first place 

 of publication. Forster, however, did intend it for a new name of his own, 

 as may easily be seen by a careful examination of his introduction and text. 

 In the former he makes the following remarks, italics ours: "That [ar- 

 rangement] of Latham, and others, founded on the Linnsean system, 

 seems preferable, if we consider the infinite approximations of the genera 

 to each other; and the wholly artificial nature of generic arrangement: 

 while the catalogue of Dr. Leach is certainly more conformable to the dif- 

 ferences of the character of Birds, and also to the notions of the Antients. 

 In those few instances where he has appeared to me to have mistaken the 

 old name, I have ventured to substitute one which I believe to belong antiently 

 to the bird. So that in the following Catalogue, the large capitals will des- 

 ignate the Linnsean name according to the arrangement now adopted. The 

 small Roman letter will mark the names of the old writers brought to light 

 by Dr. Leach. Where I have altered them, I have put a ?." 



The Nightingale is introduced into the succeeding Catalogue (page 14) 

 as follows: 

 101 SYLVIA LVSCINIA. Luscinia Aedon? 



Nightingale, Le Rosignol, Nachtigall, or 



Philomela. 



