t " I 



4G 



CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



1S9. Hesperophoua vespertina (Coop.) Bp. b 303. c lac. p 



Kvening <irosbeak. 



190. Pinicola enucleator (L.) V. B 304. c 137. u ico. 



Pine Grosbeak. 



191. Pyrrhula cassini (Bd.) Tristr. B — . c 138. R 167. (!A.) 



Cussln^s BiilUinc-h. 



192. Passer domesticus (L.) Koch. B — . c 187. n — . [imp. and Nat.] 



Pbllip Sparrow. 



with tlic diaeresis over tlie (, and consequently making seven syllables. So long a word 

 is therefore preierably sliortened by omitting tiie connecting vowel o; wiiich, witli the 

 usual change of Ur. *7 to long i in Latin, gives tlie above spelling and pronunciation. 

 The full niiiiiber of letters in the compound is cxcuhiturUidis. 



180. Hgs-p«r-C-phS'-na ves-p5r-ti'-n5. Gr. iairipa, Hesperus, the west, the place of sunset 

 (X<ipa, region, being understood); hence, tlie evening; and ipuvit, the voice; <f>aiviu, I 

 speak; <^ou, <>»)/*/, related to (^aivoi, &c. — Lat. Vcsjxrtiitnn, pertaining to the evening, 

 V(S]nrus being the same as llisperns. — The genus-name is universally written Ilesperi- 

 plioim, as lJonai)arte originally spelled it, but the above is certainly correct, as it is pure 

 Greek for what 1 "ts/ic/ /,<o»a would be the Latin of. The pleonastic name signalizes a 

 belief, formerly entertained, that the bird sings chiefly at evening. — Grosbeak ov i/rossbtak 

 is corrupted from the l"r. tjroshec, thick-bill. 



190. Pi-nl'-cfi-ia e-nu-cl6-a'-t5r. Lat. jh'iiks, a pine, and iiiroh, an inhabitant, from colo, I 



cultivate ; formed like many other words in -cula, as sit.rir<)l(i, lujnmhi, &c. — Lat. enucleator, 

 one who "shells out," or enucleates; front fimcUo, I take out the kernel; muleus, the 

 nucleus or kernel, this from mix, a nut. The two words indicate the characteristic 

 habitat aiul habit of the bird. 



191. Pyr'-rhQ-la cSs'-sIn-i. Lat. pyrrhula, a bullfinch; a diminutive of Pi/rrhiis, a proper 



name ; Gr. wvppos, fiery -red, from irVp, fire ; ni allusion to the bright color of the bird. — 

 To John Cassin. 



It is still uncertain what relation this bird may best be considered to bear to the Old 

 World form P. cordiua, as no Alaskan specimens, since the type, have been forthcoming. 

 We give it as it stan<ls in the body of tlie orig. ed. of tlie Check List. 



Note. — Another species of this genus has lately been reported from Greenland by 

 Kumlein (Bull. U. S. Nat. JIus., No. lo, p. 74 ; 1870) ; but the case remains very dubious. 



192. Pas'-s6r dam-es'-tl-ciis. Many interesting worrls arc grouped about this ubiquitous bird, 



which has been named in nearly or quite all civilized languages; some of them may be 

 here noticed. — 1, Passer domestinis, literally " house sparrow," is itself a very old Latin 

 biblionym, though used for less than a century as a technical term. Passer is good 

 Latin for sparrow, and particularly for this very species, which is said to have been 

 noted, if not named, for its salacity ; but the etymology ot this word is unknown to us, 

 as it also appears to be to the authors of several lexicons; one says /ki.'.'.stc for /lurf.scr, 

 from pandn, I spread. Passer seeriis to have become of general signification, almost as 

 broad (is Knglish " bird " or " fowl." The Ital. is passera, passrre, pass<ira, and this lan- 

 puage also had passer iloiiiestlcus in passara ea:aren(/a. The word passes directly into the 

 Fr. passerat, passereau, and to the Eng. technical adjective passerine, sparrow-like; while 

 the Span, paxaro (as if parsaro) or pajaro is apjiarently the same. — 2. The Gr. name 

 for this species was (npouB6s, in Aristotle; which in modern technic has become, in the 

 form slnilliio, the name of the ostrich. Slrulliio eameliis I,., and has given our Kng. adjec- 

 tive .s/n/M/o/w, ostrich-like. The actual application to the ostrich, however, dates back to 

 Aristotle, whose arpovBos 6 iv Atfiuij, or Libyan fowl, was the ostrich — like tlie Lat. 

 jxisser wariiiiis, i. </., the bird brought from over the sea. — 3. The Gr. word irvpyiTris, from 

 vvfiyos, a tower, and meaning a dweller in the tower, has been of late years used to some 



