1SS4.] Merriam on the '•Coups Check List and Lexicon.^ A.\ 



It is a pretty comprehensive rule in both Greek and Latin 

 that tlie final stem-vowel, or so-called connecting vowel, disap- 

 pears by elision before an initial vowel of the second element, 

 except in Greek before words which originally began with the 

 digamma or some sibilant, as tISos, 4'xw, etc. This exception in 

 the ornithological vocabulary is chiefly confined to the ending 

 -ides. But in No. 305 we read as follows: — "Megal'onyx. 

 The word is commonly accented on a long penult ; a practice 

 perhaps defensible on the ground that megalo-onyx^=inegalbnyx.''^ 

 This implies the contraction of the two short concurrent vowels 

 into one long ; but nothing of the kind takes place here ; or if it 

 did, Greek rules would require the resultant form to be (i.£-yaXovw|, 

 which should be transliterated megalnnyx. If, however, it is 

 desirable to make the penult long, it might be done upon a differ- 

 ent principle ; for several of the compounds of ovv|, all in fact in 

 Homer, have « instead of o, as Kparepajvi)^, a peculiai'itv which is 

 due not to contraction but to metrical needs, and the w forms are 

 often found in prose. Still, the short penult is common enough, 

 and the Roman poets employed it in sardonyx. 



Again, (453): — "Melanerpes. Gr. |i€\as, genitive [leXavos, 

 black, and cpmis, a creeper. The full form would be nielanoher- 

 pes." Not so. In a word formed like this upon Greek models 

 the o disappears before the vowel, and the aspirate vanishes also. 

 In composition, it is only when the aspirate comes in contact 

 with a preceding ^, t, or k^ that h is to be used to represent it, 

 as in Catherpes. Dr. Coues's principle might lead to the coin- 

 ing of other monstrosities like Philohela., which should have 

 been Philela., or better. Helophila. 



In No. 799 we read: '■'Macrura. The word is often writ- 

 ten inacro7ira. and defensibly so, the full form being macro- 

 oiira. But it is permissible to shorten ooa into long ?7, as we 

 habituallv do in lejicurns for lencoon?'iis.'" The '•'full form" can 

 have no existence. The ^^oii" as "often written," is the translit- 

 eration of the Greek diphthong ov bv two corresponding letters, 

 as many classicists now insist that we shall^vrite Mousaios instead 

 of Musteus ; but according to Dr. Coues's svstem, p. 14. ov be- 

 comes 7C. 



No. 531. "Thrasyae'tus. Gr. 9 o-v's and driTos. Generally writ- 

 ten T'/irascietits, as originally by Gray ; but the above is prefer- 

 able ; compare T/irasvas., Thrasybiiius. Thrasymachus. etc . all 



