1884.1 Strjneger o/i Analecta OrnifhoIo<ric(i. 1 67 



II. On the earliest available name of the Amekicax 



Titlark. 



I am sorry to be obliged to claim that the appellation Ant/ius 

 ludovican?is (Gm.) is more recent than AntJius pettsilvanicus 

 (Lath.). 



Linna3us did not include the American Titlaik in any of the 

 original editions of his 'Systema Naturae,' although it was both 

 described and figured by earlier authors, viz., G. Edwards, who 

 in his -Gleanings of Natural History' gave on plate 297 a recog- 

 nizable figure of a 'Lark' which was sent him from Pennsylvania 

 by Mr. W. Bartram ; and upon his plate and description is based 

 Brisson's 'L'alonette de Pensylvanie' (Orn., VI, App., p. 94, 

 No. 13). The 'Red Lark,' No. 140 of the 'British Zoology,' 

 is said to be based on the same. Under the name 'Alouette aux 

 joues brunes de Pensilvanie' Bufibn, in 177^ (Hist. Nat, d. Ois., 

 V, p. ^8), repeated the description and quoted the plate, but also 

 described (p. 38) a specimen of the same species from Louisiana 

 as 'La Farlouzanne.' Latham, in 1783 (Gen. Synops. of Birds, 

 Vol. II, pt. 3, p. 376), reprints these descriptions, the former as 

 •7. Louisiane Lark,' and the latter as '8. Red Lark,' besides quot- 

 ing under each heading the synonyms as given above. A reprint 

 of the description of the 'Red Lark' is found in Pennant's 'Arctic 

 Zoology,' II, p. 393 (17S5). So far neither of the two alleged 

 species had received any Latin name in accordance with the Lin- 

 naean binomial system (on Edwaixl's plate, and in the text of 

 Brisson, it was, however, named Alauda -pensilvanica) ; but in 

 1787 Latham gave the 'Red Lark' the binomial name Alauda 

 pensilvanlca. It is the general notion that Latham did not use 

 binomials in the Linntean sense before he employed them in his 

 'Index Ornithologicus,' published in 1790^ two years after Gme- 

 lin's 'Systema Naturae' ; but in the 'Supplement to the General 

 Synopsis of Birds' (London. 17S7) ^^ gives, on p. 381 et seg., 

 *A List of the Birds of Great Britain,' and in this list he for the 

 first time applied binomials, coining new names for those which 

 had not previously received such in Linngeus's 'Systema Naturae.' 

 The new^ names given by Latham are printed in italics, and 

 reference is given to the descriptions in the 'Synopsis.' the 'Sup- 

 plement,' and the 'British Zoology.' On p. 387, under 'Genus 

 XXXIX,' we find, as one of "the more rare [British] Birds" : 

 •'II Red L[ark]. Synopsis, IV, p. 376. Br. Zool. I, No. 140. 



