BULLETIN 



OF THE 



NUTTALL OENITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



Vol. II. APRIL, 1877. No. 2. 



CORRECTIONS OF NOMENCLATURE IN THE GENUS SIURUS. 



BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S, A. 



The genus itself, and all three of its species, requii-e names dif- 

 ferent from those now generally used. 



1. Name of the Genus. — Originally written Seiurus by Swain- 

 son, who invented the term ; also found under the forms Seiurus, 

 by ignorance, inadvertence, or typographical blunder, and Siurus, the 

 latter being correct. The word is compounded of the Greek o-ftw, 

 "I wave or brandish," and ovpov, " tail " ; it is precisely equivalent 

 to the Latin mota-cilla, French hoche-queue, English ivag-tail. 

 According to the rule that Greek « becomes long i* in Latin, the 

 word should be spelled Siurus, as was first done, I think, in the 

 Ibis for 1859, by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin, and A. and E. Newton, 

 so nearly simultaneously that I do not know to which of these schol- 

 ars we owe the corrected orthography. Seiurus has been objected 

 to on account of its identity in sound, though not in orthography, 

 etymology, or signification, with Seiurus, "a squirrel," by German 

 purists, who have proposed to substitute Enicocichla or Henico- 

 cichla ; but this is inadmissible : Siurus and Sciui-us being as differ- 

 ent as thee, objective case of second personal pronoun, and the, 

 definite ai'ticle.f (Lat. Seiurus = Gr. aKiovpot = " shadow-tail,") 



* So, also, MelopcUa, Chamoepelia, chrysoparia, etc. (accent the penult), in- 

 stead of Melopchia, Chamcepeleia, chrysopareia, etc. 



+ I am not of those rigid constructionists who require preservation of the 

 original shape of a name, however faulty. "While we cannot of course make 

 actual substitution of one name for another without other than philological 



