CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 119 



759. Phalacrocorax violaceus resplendens (Aud.) Ridg. B . c . R646a. 



Baird's Cormorant. 



760. Plotus anhinga L. B 628. c 636. K 649. 



Anhinga; Darter; Snake-bird. 



761. Tachypetes aquilus (L.) V. B 619. c 537. R 639. 



Frigate Bird; Man-of-war Bird. 



762. Phaethon sethereus L. B . c . R 655. (?!) 



Red-billed Tropic-bird. 



763. Phaethon flavirostris Brandt. B 629. c 538. R 654. 



Yellow-billed Tropic-bird. 



764. Stercorarius skua (Briinn.) Coues. B 652. c 539. R 696. 



Skua. 



765. Stercorarius pomatorhinus (Temm.) Lawr. B 653. c 540. R 697. 



Pomatorhine Jager. 



759. P. v. res-plen'-dens. Lat. resplendens, resplendent, splendid, or lustrous ; resplendeo or 



splendeo, I shine, gleam. Splendor is derived by some etymologists from 0-7rA?j(j/)5o's, 

 live coals. 



Not in the orig. ed. Since recognized by Ridgway, Pr. Nat. Mus., iii, 1880, p. 222. 

 Farallone Islands. 



760. Plo'-tus an-hin'-ga. Gr. ir\caT6s, being a good swimmer; from ir\(a<a or ir\4<t>, I swim, 



navigate ; Lat. plotus ; and very early applied, in ornithology, to divers swimming birds. 

 Anhinga is a barbarous word, from the Portuguese anfnna, and equivalent to the 

 Lat. anguina, snaky; anguis, a snake; very well applied to this curious bird, which in its 

 subaqueous excursions strangely resembles a swimming serpent. See Coues, Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, iii, 1878, p. 101. We should like to substitute the Latin form of the word, 

 but that would probably be going too far. 



761. Tach-y'-pgt-es a'-quil-us. Gr. TOXVTTCTTJS, Lat, tachypetes, flying rapidly; raxvs, swift, 



and irerofAai, I fly. Lat. aquilus, swarthy, dark-colored. The word is vaguely sup- 

 posed by most persons to have something to do with aquila, an eagle, in consideration 

 of the raptorial prowess of this piratical high-flyer ; but it would in that case be either 

 aquila, substantive, an eagle, or aquilinus, adjective, aquiline. Aquila and aquilus are 

 doubtless the same word, etymologically ; but the present specific name has nothing 

 further to do with the genus Aquila, which see, No. 532. 



762. P. ae-thg'-rS-us. Gr. alOepios, Lat. cetkereus, etherial, relating to the al6-f)p, (ether, ether, or 



serene upper air, as opposed to a-fip, aer, the lower aerial region ; the birds of this genus 

 being noted for soaring aloft. Th. aWca, &a>. 



Not in the orig. ed. If there be no mistake in identification, this species has 

 straggled to Newfoundland. See Freke, Comp. List B. of Eur. and N. A., p. 44 (repaged 

 from Proc. Roy. Soc. Dubl., 1879). 



763. Pha'-e-thon fla-vl-ros'-trls. Gr. 3>a49aov, Lat. Phaethon, a proper name, an epithet of the 



sun ; Phaethon having once undertaken to drive the chariot of the sun, his father Helios ; 

 well applied to these highly aerial birds of the Tropics. Sometimes very wrongly 

 written Phcethon, and even Phazton. Lat. flauirostris, yellow-billed. 



764. Ster-cSr-a'-rl-iis skii'-S. Lat. Stercorarius, having to do with ordure, a scavenger; stercus, 



excrement ; from the filthy habits of the bird. Skua is the name applied to the bird 

 by the Faeroese. 



765. S. po-ma-tS-rhmMis. Gr. irw^a, genitive ir^aros, a flap, lid, cover ; and pis, genitive ptvos, 



