1SS4.J CuUiis oil Oniiikophiloloi^icdlities. ^4^ 



pect tlic former of these surmises may be the right one ; for if Lat. cohiwba 

 is connected with caligo, and means 'dark,' the word is brougiit into cor- 

 respondence with the Greek name of a pigeon, ire'Xeia or ireXeias, from 

 ir«'X\os or ire'Xos, dark-colored, 'livid,' whence liz'ia as the name of the 

 Rock Dove. 



Nos. 544. 545. Zoiaida, Zenaidura. We had not succeeded in iden- 

 tifying the proper name, until the New York 'Critic' reviewer pointed 

 out th.7it Zenai'de \s the name of the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, wife 

 and cousin of Prince C. L. Honaparte, who dedicated the genus to her 

 under the Latinized form Zeiiaida. From this Zenaidura is, as we 

 Stated, obviously though somewhat curiousl}' formed b^' adding -ura, from 

 ovpa, tail. Will the next critic of our 'Check List' give us the nationality 

 and pedigree of the word Zenaide, which must have been a word before it 

 became a proper name.'' 



No. 560. Uropluisinniis. We naively took this from ovpct and //^(7.</f7;/«5; 

 but we suspect that we made a great bull in not making a bull instead of a 

 tail out of the first part of the word. So, to take this bull by the tail, we 

 should sav that nrophasicnius is probably constructed upon the model of 

 urogallus. -which word was formed by Gesner from the German Aticrkahii, 

 whQve Alter = urns, the bull described by Csesar, the Aurochs; the im- 

 plication being the bird's comparative size. The same idea appears in 

 'bull-frog,' etc. If this be so, urophasianus is brought into correspondence 

 with urogallus, Auerhahn, and also capercaillie. 



No. 571. Oriyx. We gave opTv|, a quail, as related to opraXis, and both 

 as akin toopvis, a bird. Wharton, quoting Curtius, makes it from the root 

 of verto, I turn, from its whirling flight, and compares Skt. Tdi-fakas, a 

 quail, vari, to roll. Will Professor Merriam decide this point for us.^ 



No. 5S9. Hiaticula. We gave no satisfactory account of this word, 

 merely saying, correctlj', that it is an old bird-name, in form a diminutive 

 of hiatus. The 'Zoologist' i-eviewer helps us to the desired explanation, 

 saying: " Charleton, at p. 109 of his ' Onomasticon Zoicon ' (166S), says 

 that the name is given to the Ring Plover quia circa fluminum alveos et 

 rivorum hiatus verseter, because it haunts the mouths {hiatus) of rivers." 

 If now we were asked to say, what is the one most important point made 

 bv Professor Merriam in his long excursion into bird-land, we should 

 reply, his quotation from Gaza (1476) showing that hiaticula is simply a 

 translation of Aristotle's x.^paSpio's — 'quasi hiaticula dixcris' ; a point, by 

 the w-ay, already made by Mr. Wharton in the 'Ibis List,' p. 159. 



No. 593. Vanellus. We wonder that Professor Merriam did not correct 

 us here, where we were all wrong. The ' Zoologist' reviewer takes a fair 

 shot, as follows : " There is a carelessness about deriving Vanellus from 

 vanus which surprises us in the midst of so much erudition. The old 

 spelling, Vaiiiicllus, and the French vanueau, leave no doubt as to the 

 origin of the word being from the Latin vaiinus, a fan. Charleton (p. loS) 

 ah-eady says the name is given quodualis, instar vanni seu veiitilabri, com- 

 motis concussisque strepitum edaf— that is to say, you know. Professor 

 Merriam, because with (its) wings, like unto (or after the manner of) a 



