Letters, Announcements, ^c. 223 



As to the orthography of the penultimate syllable, I can 

 scarcely decide. It would simplify matters to take fiva, 

 thereby eliding one of the vowels, with which suggestion 1 

 leave the composition in other hands, only urging that, in 

 my opinion, the epsilon of eSeo-r?^? should certainly be pre- 

 served*. But, in any event, can the nominative plural of 

 Myiadectes be Myiadecta, as editorially written on p. 115 of 

 the same number of ' The Ibis ' ? 



My proposition of Zamelodia vice Hedymeles is based upon 

 a rule which I follow in common with many zoologists, viz. 

 that no synonym of any genus is available in any other con- 

 nexion. Hedymeles, being the same word as Hedymela, is 

 functus officio, because the latter is a synonym, even though 

 an untenable one, of a different genus. 



"Linnaeus at 1758 •'^ is a watchword now adopted, I think, 

 by American ornithologists without exception ; and in writing 

 Icterus galbula, Limosa hcemastica, &c., I simply conform to 

 the rule. It is against the current of general usage, I know ; 

 but if some English ornithologist will try the experiment, he 

 may be surprised to find how many nomenclatural Gordian 

 knots this simple expedient cuts. And is there any reason in 

 the nature of the case why Linnaeus should not be taken at 

 1758 ? But this point, like that one involved in the " Ame- 

 rican idea'^ of binomials, will find, I fear, little, if any, 

 favour from our Transatlantic co-workers, for the present 

 at least. 



The case of Icterus parisorum is a brilliant blunder of mine 

 {Med culpa, med maxima culpa, I cry), and serves my inge- 

 nuity in wrong-doing right ! 



A curious point comes up in the matter of Hydranassa and 

 Dichromanassa. The former was not lately instituted by 

 Mr. Ridgway, as your reviewer states, but by Prof. Baird in 



* [There is uo oLjection whatever, that we can see, to the emendation 

 of " Myadestes " into " Myiedestes." But if the i is omitted, as Dr. Coues 

 suggests, and the term is written " Myedestes,^' this wouhl primarily signify 

 " mouse-eater " (from ixvs, /xuds), not " fly-eater." The correct Latin plural 

 ot Myiedestes would be ^^ Myiedestce^'' {ibearris, gen. ibea-rov, pi. nom, 

 (BecTTai = edestee) . — E dd . ] 



