REMARKS ON THE USE OF NAMES. 



$ 1. ETYMOLOGY, OR DERIVATION. 



Etymology^ the «rv/ioA,oyi'a of the Greeks, consists in tracing tlie derivation of a 

 word back to the root from which it springs, exi)laining its formation, inflection, and 

 application, thereby more clearly illustrating its virtue or quality than can be done 

 i)y merely considering any one of the various meanings it may in time acquire. 

 Kor a good illustration of this definition, sec the word OirdinaUs. 



The large majority of the scientific names of birds are Latin or Greek words, or 

 modern compounds of such, derived conformaljly to the rules for the construction of 

 classic terms. In general, therefore, it is easy to give the exact meaning of the 

 names in their original accei)tation, and to point out their applicability as terms 

 descriptive of the objects designated. On the whole, it has not been our design to 

 go beyond a good lixir definition of these Greek and Latin words, considering that all 

 practical purposes are thus subserved. Many of tiie classic words being themselves 

 derivatives, and the field of philological inquiry being boundless, it was necessary 

 to keep within certain limits ; and we have therefore seldom found it advisable, even 

 were it practicable, in a case like the present, to trace words back of their recog- 

 nized stems. Y'et there will be found in tlie present little treatise, it is believed, 

 much philological information of interest and actual value to all who desire to be 

 put at their ease in the use of tiie Greek and Latin names of birds. 



Many pure Greok or Latin names of birds known in classic times have been 

 transferred in ornithology, in a wholly arbitrary maimer, to totally ditferent species. 

 Thus tiie Tiochilui of the ancients was an Egyptian Plover ; in ornithological nomen- 

 clature, it is a genus of American Humming-birds. So also, many jiroper names, 

 and many of the epithets which classic writers were so fond of bestowing, liave been 

 adopted as generic or specific names of birds, with little reason or with none, except 

 the will of the namer. The genus larhe has no more to do with the Greek battle- 

 cry than the name of Smith or Brown has to do with trade or color. 



