556 On the correct Generic Name of the Linnets. 



b. LiNARIA. 



7. F. cannabina. 9. F. flavirostris. 



8. F. citiinella. 



C. ACANTHIS. 



10. F. carduelis. 12. F. linaria. 



11. F. spinus. 13. F. flammea. 



d. Calcarius. 

 1 4. F. lapponica. 



It is quite evident from this list^ and from the subgeneric 

 characters given by Bechstein to Acanthis (" mit einem 

 diinnern, an den Seiten etwas zusaramen gedriickten^ und 

 scharf und lang zugespitzten Schnabel'^), that his Acanthis 

 was intended for the Gohl finch {F. carduelis) and the Siskin 

 {F. spinus), and that it is a perversion of Bechstein^s inten- 

 tion to transfer it, as Dr. Stejneger proposes, to the Redpoll 

 {F. linaria), although Bechstein unaccountably placed the 

 latter in the same group. Bechsteiu's subgeneric term for 

 the Linnets was evidently Linaria, not Acanthis. Acanthis, 

 therefore, is simply a synonym of Carduelis, and should not 

 be used for the Linnets. Indeed, Dr. Stejneger did not seek 

 to apply it to the Linnets, but to the P^edpolls (which he 

 keeps separate from them), instead oi AEffiothus of Cabanis. 



Again, I may remark that Linota, as a generic term, 

 appears to have been first published by Bonaparte in 1831 in 

 the "^ Aggiunte e correzioni^' to his ' Saggio di una Distri- 

 buzione raetodica degli Animali vertebrati^ (p. 141). This 

 is seven years earlier than the ' Comparative List ' (1838) 

 quoted by Dr. Sharpe and others. The correct generic 

 synonymy of the Linnets is therefore as follows : — 



Type. 



Linaria^ Bechst, Oru. Taschenb. i. p. 121 (1802) F. cannabina. 



Cannabina, Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 1277 (1828) F. cannabina. 



Linota, Bp. Saggio Distr. met. Anirn. p. 141 (1831) .... F. cannabina. 



jFgiothus, Cab. Mus. Hein. i. p. 161 (1851) F. linaria. 



Linacanthis, Des Murs, Enc. d' Hist. Nat., Ois. v. p. 303 



(1854) F. Ii7iaria. 



Agriospiza, Sund. Meth. nat. Av. Tent. p. 23 (1872). . . . F. flavirostris. 



