veceomad Covues, Zamelodia against Habia. 41 
gers now referred to Sa/tator or elsewhere. //abia may or may 
not be tenable for some such birds ; but obviously it cannot stand 
for any others ; and consequently, on the principle that “once a 
synonym always a synonym,” or by our rule for the rejection of 
homonyms, Hada Reich. 1850 falls to the ground, dragging with 
it the dzsyecta membra of Dr. Stejneger’s worsted case. 
According to the admirably lucid manner in which Dr. Stej- 
neger’s ‘Analecta Ornithologica’ were wont to be formulated, 
even when their author was mistaken, the present case may be 
thus stated : — 
Genus Zamelodia Cougs. 
1850.— Habia Retcu., Av. Syst. Nat. pl. lxxviii, fig. 14, June 
1, 1850; type Guwzraca melanocephala Sw.; nec apud 
CUVIER, 1849; mec AGassiz, 1843; nec Abita AGASSIZ, 
1846. (lVec Abia LEacu, GIEBEL, in entomology). 
185 1.— Hedymeles CaB., Mus. Hein. i, June, 1851, p. 152; type 
Loxia ludoviciana LInN.; nec Hedymela SUND., 1846. 
1880.— Zamelodia Cours, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, V. Apr. 1880, 
p. 98; type Loxia ludoviciana LINN. 
1884.— Habia STEJNEGER, Auk, Oct. 1884, p. 367, errore. 
1886—95.— Habia, A.O. U. Lists, 1886-95, exrore, and of mis- 
led American writers generally since 1884. 
I gladly avail myself further of the incomparable Stejnegerian 
method of exposition to state that the species, according to Coues’s 
Key, 2d—4th eds. 1884-90, p. 389, will stand—not as Dr. Ste}j- 
neger, 7. c., says they will stand— but as: 
244. Zamelodia ludoviciana (LINN.). RosE-BREASTED GRos- 
BEAK, 
245. Zamelodia melanocephala (Swarns.). BLACK-HEADED 
GROSBEAK. 
Dr. Stejneger’s acquirements in Greek etymology seem to have 
failed him in discussing the meaning of Adza, as the Agassizian 
emendation of Hadza, in 1846. The learned gentleman says that 
Abia would seem to be derived from adios, in the meaning of 
‘poor, without food.’ He may be glad to be informed that Adza 
is directly from the Greek 4 privitive and Bia, force, power, might, 
bodily strength, being first introduced in zodlogy by Dr. W. E. 
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