NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 397 



Americans will never be followed by European ornithologists. 

 Nomenclature is sufficiently complicated already, without letting 

 go of the principle of simplicity that has served so well zoologists 

 and botanists alike for more than a century. There are many 

 who think that the addition of one author's name infringes the 

 principles of binomialism ; what are we to do when two specific 

 names are followed by the names of two authors ? 



Dr. Coues' preliminary remarks on " Orthography or Spell- 

 ing " are clear and useful, but when he treats of " Orthoepy or 

 Pronunciation " we fear he is needlessly pedantic. Englishmen 

 have so long, however erroneously, pronounced Latin words as 

 nearly as possible as if they were English, that it is futile to 

 expect reform in a matter where even scholars are undecided. 

 Teach ornithologists uniformity by showing them where a vowel 

 is long and where it is short, so that their pronunciation may not 

 grate upon educated ears ; but we can see no advantage to be 

 gained by pronouncing fuscescens " foosaysaynce," or virens 

 "wirraynce," or amccna " ahmwaynah," or chen " cane." Those 

 who follow Dr. Coues' suggestions in this direction may in the 

 end prove to be more or less correct, but they will certainly to the 

 end be misunderstood. Even if it were possible to make every 

 ornithologist a scholar on the modern lines, it is very doubtful if 

 much would be gained. But false quantities are no more allow- 

 able than provincialisms or dropping h's ; guard against these, 

 and you cannot much farther go. However, for all his learning, 

 Dr. Coues seems to think it sometimes allowable to make false 

 quantities himself ; he knows that Lophophcmes is correct, but 

 he "instinctively inclines " to Lojriwplmnes. Instinct here seems 

 to be the child of other people's ignorance ; a somewhat novel 

 definition ! In speaking of Troglodytes he apparently would for- 

 sake the obvious pronunciation of the " dead " Greek poets, and 

 adopt that of the modern Greeks, laying the stress on the vowel 

 where the accent — by well-known laws — falls ; chiefly, be it 

 observed, because it is a trifle easier. 



These remarks might seem ungenerous were it not for 

 the unbounded gratitude with which we would fain greet 

 Dr. Coues for his excellent researches into the origin and 

 meaning of all the birds' names he has occasion to use. These 

 form the great peculiarity and value of the present publication, 

 and we most heartily commend them to the serious study of 



