1SS4. ] hiTicjNEGicR 0)1 f/ic (xc/iits Acanthi.s. ^4S 



•^ NOTES ON THE GENUS ACANTHIS. 



BY LEONHARD STEJNEGKK. 



Having just finished an examination of a collecticMi ot Red- 

 polls, embracing se\'eral hundred specimens, from America, 

 Europe, and Asia, I propose to give some brief notes on the 

 results arrived at, as pressing work in other directions at present 

 prevents my elaborating a more extensive memoir. 



Before proceeding to the discussion of the several species and 

 subspecies, remarks upon the generic name of the group may 

 not be out of place. 



Professor Baird, in 1S5S, adopted the name ^^giothiis, given by 

 Cabanis in 1S51, and in this almost all American writers have fol- 

 lowed him. ^'•Acanthis Bp. 1S50," is given as a synonym, and 

 as "not of Bechstein, 1803." If we look, however, on p. 125 

 of the 'Ornithologisches Taschenbuch von und fiir Deutsch- 

 land' (Leipzic, 1803), we shall be convinced that Bechstein 

 established the term Acanthis for the three species cai'duells L., 

 spimis L., and linaria L. (and Jiainmea., which is probably 

 only the summer plumage of the last named). But of these three 

 birds, the two first named had already been removed by Brisson 

 in 1760, and by Scbafier in 17S9, to the genus Cardnelis (of late 

 accepted in exactl}^ the same sense by Professor Newton). This 

 leaves linai-ia as the only occupant of the restricted genus 

 Acanthis^ of which it is consequently the type. The case is too 

 clear to leave any doubt whatever. Linaria Vieill., 1S16, is 

 often applied to this group, but it is only a synonym, and 

 moreover had been previously occupied ; for, besides being used 

 in botany long before, it was the term applied in 1803 by 

 Bechstein (1. c.) to a group of Finches embracing caiuiabina 

 L.. citrinella L., and jftavirostris L. (and not linaria!), one of 

 them consequently being the type. The foregoing may be sum- 

 marized thus : — 



Genus Acanthis* Bechstein. 



<:^iSo3. — Acanthis Bkchst^i^, Orn. Tasch. Deutschl. p. 125 (type, A. 

 linaria L.). 



* AKttvSis. name of a bird eating thistles (aKavfloi), Aristoteles, VIII, 5.4; IX, 

 2.10; IX, 16.5. 



