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12 



REMARKS ON THE USE OF NAMES. 



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The remaining names, i ot classic in origin, are a miscellaneous lot not cas}- to 

 characterize tersel}'. Many arc modern geographical or personal names in Latin 

 form; as, wilsom, genitive case of Alexander Wilson's name, Latinized Wilsonun ; 

 or wilsoniamis, an adjectival form of the same ; americana for American ; hitdson- 

 icus, after the tcrritor}' named for Henry Hudson ; noveborucensis,, which is liter- 

 ally, inhabiting New York. Some others are post-classic, or late Latin, thoiigli in 

 perfectly good form; and there are more of these, we find, tlian is generally sup- 

 posed. Not a few are wholly barbarous, as Pyranya, Guiraca; and some of these, as 

 cheriway, wurmizusume, are barbarous in form as in fact. Some arc monstrous 

 combinations, like Embernagra from Emberiza and Tanagra, or Podilymbus from Podi- 

 ceps and Colymbus. Some are simply Latin translations of vernacular names ; as, 

 Pirffinus anglorum, the puffin of the English. Finally, some are anagrams, like 

 Dacelo from Alccdo, or pure nonsense-words, as Dajila, I'ircdca, Xema. 



The student who confidingl3- expects to discover erudition, propriety, and perti- 

 nence in every technical name of a bird, will have his patience sorely tried in dis- 

 covering what lack of learning, point, and taste man}' words imply. Besides the 

 barbarisms, anomalies, and absurdities alrcadj" indicated, he must be preparetl to 

 find names used witli as little regard for [)recision of meaning, ahnost, as those of 

 Smith, Brown, and Jones. Nothing like the nice distinctions, for example, tliat tlie 

 Romans made between aler and niger, both meaning " black," or between albits and 

 candidiis, " white," obtains in modern science, where names are too often mere 

 sounds without sense, and where the inflexible rules of technical nomenclature com- 

 pel us to recognize and use many terms of slight or obscure or entirely arbitrary* 

 applicability, if onl\- they be not glaringly false or of express absurdity. Let him 

 for example, compare tlie several birds whose specific name is fuscus, and see what 

 color-blindness this word covers. 



The large majority of tlie names being, as already said, of Greek or Latin deriva- 

 tion, we are enabled to give a reasonably full and fair account of their etymology, 

 and to point out their significance and application. There are, perhaps, not two 

 dozen words of the whole list which we are unable to explain and define. 



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III 



$2. ORTHOGRAPHY, OR SPELLING. 



The literation of the scientific names is fixed and exact in nearly all cases. 

 Their derivation being known, and their form having crystallized in a language 

 " dead" for centuries, the proportion of cases in wliidi the ortliograi)hy is unsettled 

 is comparative!}' small. In general, there is no alternative spelling of a Greek or 

 Latin word, and the modern derivatives are or can be compounded according to 

 rules so fixed as to leave little latitude. In some instances, of course, two or more 

 admissible forms of the same word occur : as hyemaUs or /lienifdis, ccertikus or 

 ceEruleus, H(di(retiis or Halia'etus. But, in general, there remains only one rigiit way 

 of spelling, and that way easily ascertained. We say, there remains ; for of course 



