PRINCIPLES, CANONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 63 



the same propriety as technical ones, in cases where a direct allusion can be 

 traced between the narrated actions of a personage and the observed habits 

 or structure of an animal. Thus when the name Progne is given to a Swal- 

 low, ClotJw to a Spider, Hydra to a Polyp, Athene to an Owl, Nestor to a 

 gray-headed Parrot, etc., a pleasing and beneficial connexion is established 

 between classical literature and physical science." (B. A. Code.} 



7. Avoid hybrid names. " Compound words, whose components are 

 taken from two different languages, are great deformities in nomenclature, 

 and naturalists should be especially guarded not to introduce any more such 

 terms into zoology, which furnishes too many examples of them already. 

 We have them compounded of Greek and Latin, as Dendrofalco, Gymno- 

 corvus, Monoculus, Arborophila,flavigaster; Greek and French, as Jacama- 

 ralcyon, Jacamerops; Greek and English, as Bullockoides, Gilberlsocriniies." 

 (B. A. Code.} 



8. Avoid generic names closely resembling others already in existence, 

 even when the e f ymology may be different ; as, Pica and Picus, Otostomia 

 and Odostomia, Tachyphonus and Trachyphonus , etc. The danger of con- 

 fusion in such cases is evident, and should be guarded against. 



9. " Corrupted words. In the construction of compound Latin words, 

 there are certain grammatical rules which have been known and acted on 

 for two thousand years, and which a naturalist is bound to acquaint himself 

 with before he tries his skill in coining zoological terms. One of the chief 

 of these rules is, that in compounding words all the radical or essential parts 

 of the constituent members must be retained, and no change made except in 



the variable terminations A name made up of the first half of one 



word and the last half of another, is as deformed a monster in nomenclature 

 as a Mermaid or a Centaur would be in zoology ; yet we find examples in the 

 names Corcorax (from Corvus and Pyrrhocorax}, Cypsnagra (from Cypse- 

 lus and Tanagra\ Merulaxis (from MeruJa and Synallaxis), Loxigilla 

 (from Loxia and Fringilla) t etc. In other cases, where the commencement 

 of both the simple words is retained in the compound, a fault is still com- 

 mitted by cutting off too much of the radical and vital portions, as is the 

 case in Bucorvus (from Bnceros and Corvus), Ninox (from Nisus and Noc- 

 tua}, etc." (B. A. Code.} 



10. "Nonsense names. Some authors having found difficulty in select- 

 ing generic names which have not been used before, have adopted the plan of 

 coining words at random without any derivation or meaning whatever. The 

 following are examples : Viralva, Xema, Azeca, Assiminia, Quedius, Spi- 

 sula. To the same class we may refer anagrams of other generic names, as 

 Dacelo and Cedola of Alcedo, Zapornia of Porzana, etc. Such verbal trifling 

 as this is in very bad taste, and is especially calculated to bring the science 



into contempt It is contrary to the genius of all languages, which 



appear never to produce new words by spontaneous generation, but always 

 to derive them from some other source, however distant or obscure. And it 



