50 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 



inclusiveness, which he called, species, genus, ordo and classis. 

 We still use Linnseus's general system of classification and most 

 of his short two-word scientific names for the different animals 

 and plants that he knew, but we base the classification on other 

 grounds than the superficial resemblances that he used, and we 

 see in our classification a more far-reaching significance and a 

 much greater importance than he saw. But Linnaeus was the 

 first great animal classifier, or systematic zoologist, and de- 

 serves all honor for his" important work. 



Animal Names. Well-known animals have common, or 

 vernacular names, but less familiar ones do not. Also these 

 common names differ in different countries; that is, are differ- 

 ent in different languages. The animal we call dog, the Ger- 

 mans call Hund, the French, chien, and the Italians, cane. 

 And even in the same country one common name may be 

 applied in different parts of it; as "quail" which means one 

 kind of bird in the East, another kind in the Mississippi Valley, 

 and still another on the Pacific Coast. "Partridge" has still 

 a wider divergence of application^ and "minnow" refers to 

 nearly as many different fishes as the localities in which the 

 word is used. 



Thus if there is to be accurate speaking and writing about 

 animals, and if the naturalists of different countries are to be 

 able to use names that are understandable to all, there is 

 necessary some system of naming animals other than the popu- 

 lar one of vernacular names. This system is that of the so- 

 called "scientific names," or two- word names in Latin or 

 Greek, devised and successfully established by Linnaeus. It 

 is a system which has given rise to much popular fun-making 

 and no little scientific discussion and dispute, but whose use- 

 fulness is so real and whose principles are so sound that it will 

 likely never be given up. 



The names used in it are all Latin or Greek simply because 

 these classic languages are taught in the schools and colleges 

 of almost all the countries of the world, and are thus intelligible 

 and familiar to naturalists of all nationalities. In the older 

 days, indeed, all the scientific books, the descriptions and 

 accounts of animals and plants, were written in Latin, and now 



