398 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



every ornithologist, whether his work lie mainly in the field or 

 in the despised " closet." Every explanation Dr. Coues gives 

 ought henceforth to become the common property of every lover 

 of birds ; in them seems to lie the poetry of the application of 

 the names. 



In a review like the present it would be unprofitable to go 

 through all Dr. Coues' remarks seriatim, but we may notice some 

 instances where we think revision needful. His excellent index, 

 in which the reader should observe that some corrections are 

 made, renders references to the numbers of the names unneces- 

 sary. Yet even here the corrections are not always sufficient ; 

 for instance, the name Atthis seems to puzzle him, although it is 

 simply taken from that of the beautiful maiden who was the 

 beloved of the poetess Sappho — an apt idea to apply to a Hum- 

 ming-bird : to say, "it is also a proper name," does not convey 

 much information. 



Under Reguhu calendula it is scarcely correct to say that 

 Calendula " was apparently coined by Brisson, 1760." The word 

 probably comes from calere, to glow ; but it was used in botany 

 centuries ago. Old Gerard, in his ' Herball,' 1597, says : — " The 

 Marigold is called Calendula : it is to be seene in floure in the 

 Calends almost of every moneth." 



Motacilla, and words with a similar termination, have long 

 presented difficulties, and Dr. Coues rather adds to the confusion. 

 We have motare, to keep moving, as a frequentative of movco, I 

 move ; the frequentative adjective from this would have been 

 motax, of which the diminutive would be motacvla, and the 

 double diminutive motacilla. There is no reason to make a 

 barbarous compound of a real Latin word and an invented Greek 

 one. Albicilla, atricilla, &c„ can all be similarly explained ; our 

 theory is not overturned by albicilla having been applied to an 

 Eagle, as if it were not a diminutive ; guessing is as old a 

 practice as etymology itself. 



Of Mgiothus hornemanni — which, by the way, is named after 

 Jens Wilken Hornemann, who lived 1770 — 1841 — it is not quite 

 right to say "it is absolutely confined" to Greenland, seeing 

 that a specimen was killed near Whitburn so long ago as 1855, 

 and figured by Mr. Hancock in his ' Catalogue of the Birds of 

 Northumberland and Durham ' ; and it is said to have occurred 

 as far south as Abbeville. 



