416 THE TROPIC BIRD. 



THE TROPIC BIRD. 



" Quinque tenent coelum zonge, quarum una corusco 

 Semper sole rubens, et torrida semper ab igni." 



VIRGIL. 



THE burning zone in which the ancients have placed the zodiac is 

 the favourite resort of this solitary wanderer over the deep. He is 

 called Phaeton by Linnaeus, and Paille-en-queue by Buffon ; whilst 

 our own mariners address him under the familiar appellation of Mar- 

 lingspike, and sometimes under that of Boatswain. 



Our ornithological nomenclature is much more dignified now-a- 

 days than it was in the olden time. Many a bird, which heretofore 

 would have received its name from some particular spot in which it 

 resided the wood-ow\ to wit; or from some peculiar food upon 

 which it was known to feed, the carrion-ciovt, for example, now 

 bears the name of some individual of the human race, some friendly 

 patron, some modern Croesus, who can assist the author in his 

 journey through an expensive press. In the first volume of a recent 

 work on North American Ornithology, no less than thirteen birds 

 appear to bear the names of men. I have my doubts whether this 

 complimentary nomenclature be of any real benefit to the public at 

 large, or to science in general. Perhaps our own sages here in the 

 East will discuss this question at their leisure. I could wish, how- 

 ever, that the Western artist had given us a glossary, by means of 

 which we might learn something of the philosophers after whom his 

 birds are named ; as I take it for granted (though possibly I may be 

 mistaken) that his thirteen birds are really named from individuals 

 of the human race. In the plates to the first volume of his work, I 

 find that a hawk is called the " Black Warrior," and that the Latin 

 name which he has given it is " Falco Harlani." Pray, who or 

 what is Harlani ? A man, a mountain, or a mud-flat ? Is " Black 

 Warrior" a negro of pugnacious propensities? Leaving, then, the 

 advantages, or disadvantages, of this peculiar nomenclature to be 

 discussed by doctors learned in ornithology, I will advert to times 

 gone-by, and I will remark that Linnaeus, the Swede, at all events, 



