34 CHECK LIST OF NOETH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



91. Mniotilta varia (L.) V. B 167. c 57. R 74. 



Black-and-white Creeper. 



92. Mniotilta varia borealis (Nutt.) Ridg. B . c . R 74a. (?) 



Small-billed Creeper. 



93. Parula anaericana (L.) Bp. B 168. c 58. R 88. 



Blue Yellow-backed Warbler. 



94. Parula nigrilora Coues. B . c . R 89a. 



Sennett's Warbler. 



95. Protonotaria citrea (Gm.) Bd. B 169. c 59. R 75. 



Prothonotary Warbler. 



96. Helminthenis vermivorus (Gm.) Bp. B 178. c 60. R 77. 



Worm-eating Warbler. 



91. MnI-6-tIF-ta var'-I-a. Gr. pviov, moss, and ri\\u, I pluck, or ri\r6s, plucked. Neither 



the orthography nor the applicability of the word is obvious. Vieillot wrote sometimes 

 mniotilta, sometimes mniotilla. The conjectured application is to the weaving of moss into 

 a nest. Lat. varia, variegated, as this bird is with black and white. 



92. M. v. bSr-e-aMIs. Lat. borealis, northern. See Phyttoscopus, No. 32. 



Not in the orig. ed. of the Check List. 



93. Pa'-rfi-la am-gr-I-ca'-na. Lat. panda, diminutive from parus, a titmouse, q. v., No. 44. 



Lat. americana, American. America is generally supposed to derive its name from 

 Amerigo Vespucci, Latinized Americus Vespucius ; and is said to have first appeared in 

 the form of America Provincia, on a map published at Basle in 1522. The counter-argu- 

 ment is : (1) The name if from the Italian navigator's would have been from his surname. 

 (2) His name was Alberico Vespuzio. (3) Americ, or Amerique, is the native name of 

 a range of mountains in Nicaragua. " It is most plausible that the State of Central 

 America, where we find the name Americ signifying great mountain, gave the continent 

 its name." (Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, i, p. 692.) The author cited seeks to establish a 

 connection with the Hindu Meni, or Meruah, of similar signification. 



94. P. nIg-rMo'-r&. Lat. niger, black; and forum, a thong, strap, a bridle-rein; hence the 



cheeks, along which the bridle passes. The " lore " has become in ornithology a techni- 

 cal name for a small space on the side of a bird's head between the eye and the bill. 



Not in the first ed. of the Check List. Lately discovered in Texas by Mr. George B. 

 Sennett. See Coues, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., iv, 1878, p. 11. 



95. Pro-tS-n8-ta'-rI-a cit'-rg-a. Low Latin for prothonotary ; from Gr. irpwros, first, and Lat. 



notarius, a scribe, a notary-public. The bird is le Protonotaire of Buffon, Latinized by 

 Gmelin as protonotarius in 1788 ; but for the name, as Pennant observed in 1785, " the 

 reason has not reached us." Lat. citrea, of or pertaining to the citron, in allusion to the 

 yellow color. 



96. Hel-min-the'-nis ver-ml'-vSr-iis. Gr. \fiivs, genitive eA/x</0oy, and e-fipiov, from efy, an 



animal. The word is very incorrectly compounded. Its full form is helminthotherium ; 

 we may perhaps reduce it by elision to helmintherus, but helmitherus, as originally written 

 by Rafinesque, is inadmissible. This is the accepted derivation ; but we may suggest a 

 short cut to the same etymon, 6-f)p, an animal; \fj.iv6o6^pas, a worm-hunter, like the 

 actual bpviOoe-fipas, a fowler, in Aristoph., Av. 62 ; being c\/j.ivs and 6-fipa, the chase, from 

 etp; though we hesitate to act upon this by writing Helmintheras. 'Lat. vermivorus^ 

 worm-eating, from vermis, a worm (verto, I turn, in the sense of squirming or wriggling) 

 and voro, I eat. 



