256 Mr. H. T. Whartou on the proper Generic 



Virgil (^n. vii. 189-191) definitely says— 



" Picus quern 



Fecit avem Circe, sparsitque coloribus alas." 



This may have meant any green or spotted Woodpecker"^ — 

 and Count Salvador! says that P. viridis is the most common 

 species at this day in the neighbourhood of Rome — but clearly 

 cannot refer to P. martius. 



Moreover a bird nearly as large as a Crow can hardly 

 have been intended by Pliny (Hist. Nat. x. 18, 20) when he 

 said, ^' sunt et parvse aves uncorum unguium, ut pici, Martio 

 cognomine insignes et in auspicatu magni." It is true that 

 the passage is celebrated as " insigniter vitiatus;" but all who 

 have endeavoured to amend it seem to be agreed in retaining 

 the opposition between ''parvge'^ and "magni." 



And, in the face of Linnseus^s final practice, it is note- 

 worthy that no authority referred to by him or by those to 

 whom he refers ever uses Picus martius as designating the 

 Black Woodpecker. To him, before the issue of his tenth 

 edition of the ' Systema Naturae' (p. 112, Holmise, 1758), 

 the bird was P. niger alone ; nor in his own copy, in the 

 possession of the Linnean Society, is there any note on the 

 reason of the change. 



Yet, to take some of his references to authors (Syst. Nat. 

 ed. 12, p. 173, 1766) seriatim, Gesner (Hist. Anim. lib. iii. 

 p. 675, 1555) writes '^de picis martiis et picorum genere in 

 universum,^^ saying (p. 680) '' sunt pici Martii tria genera " 

 in the most general way; Willughby (Ornith. p. 92, f f. 1676) 

 has no P. martius at all; Ray (Syn. Meth. Av. p. 42, 1713) 

 treats vaguely of " pici martii iisque affines,^^ while his trans- 

 lator and amplifier Salerne (Hist. Nat. des Ois. p. 104, 1767) 

 says of P. viridis that one of the names by which it was then 

 known in France, " Pic-Mart, Pimard, ou Pieumart, vient 

 de Picus martius " besides that '^ chez les Romains il [i. e. 

 P. viridis] etoit consacre an Dieu Mars, et c'est de la que lui 

 est venu le nom de Picus martius ; " Brisson^s " Picus mar- 



* [We believe the " Ticus " here referred to by Virgil was the Roller 

 {Coracias gar ruins), called "Pica marina " to this day in Italy. — Edd.] 



