102 Miscellaneous. 



Prestwich. The species are few and call for little remark, except 

 that the climate -was not Arctic. They are all common British 

 forms. 



The collection from Grays consists of leaves, already partly 

 determined by Gaudin and Herr, though unpublished, and some 

 lumps of clay, out of which the Author washed a few seeds. The 

 flora points clearly to a temperate climate and mild winters. ■ 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



" Mesites" 



The name Mesites has been used in systematic zoology for no less 

 than four different genera, belonging to different classes of animals, 

 as anyone may learn for himself from Scudder's ' Nomenclator 

 Zoologicus.' " Thus bad begins, but worse remains behind *' ; for 

 three of these names are actually current. To one man Mesites 

 conveys the idea of a bird, for another it means a weevil, while 

 some of us have long known by that name nothing but a peculiar 

 palceozoic echinoderm. "Which is the real Simon Pure? 



In vol. iv. part 2 of C. J. Schiinherr's ' Genera ct Species Curcu- 

 lionidum,' on p. 104;:J, Mesites was proposed for a genus of weevils, 

 type M. jiuUidij)ennis, bj" C. H. liohemaii. This volume was pub- 

 lished at Paris by lloret and at Leipzig by Fleischer, and the date 

 on tlic titlepage of the part is 1838. An advertisement of Koret's 

 on the back of the half-title indicates that the book was issued in 

 January of that year ; the date, 1 Eebr. 1838, attached to the 

 preface of vol. v, confirms this. 



Put in April 1838 Isid. Geoffrey St.-Hilaire applied the same 

 name to a kind of sun-bittern from Madagascar {M. vnriecjata). 

 The chief references are: — Comptes Eendus, vi. p. 443, April 9 ; 

 Pevue Zoologique, 1838, April, p. 50 ; and Ann. Sci. Nat. ix. 

 p. 189. In the ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,' 

 vol. xxiii. p. 244, 1894, Dr. Bowdler Sharj)e maintained this name, 

 and even based on it a family name, Mesitida>, as had already been 

 done, though in a somewliat different sense, by C. L. Bonaparte. 

 Bolieman's priority to Geoffroy might conceivably be disputed by 

 a prejudiced ornithologist, could such a one be found, were it not 

 for the evidence of Peichenbach, who, on p. of his ' Ilandbuch 

 der Columl)aria>,' 1850, altered the name of the bird to Jlesrenas, 

 since " Der Name 3Iesitcs war um ein Jahr iriiherdurch Schiiiiherr 

 schon an cine Piisselkiifergattung vergeben." It was probably for 

 the same reason that Ponaparte, according to Gray (' Hand-list Gen. 

 and Sp. Birds Brit. Mus.' p. 2G7, 1809), changed Mesites to Ma^i. 

 tornis in 1855 ; but whether this was ever more tlian a MS. name 

 is uncertain, since no reference can be found, and its alleged author 

 still used Mesites on May 12, 1850 (' Comptes liendus,' xlii. p. 870). 



In April 1842 L. Jenyns ('Zoology, Voyage of H.M.S. 'Beagle,'* 

 part iv. Pish, p. 118) applied the name Mesites to three ucw species 



