232 
of this law by the United States Department of 
Agriculture, which has the matter in charge, 
and the proposed extension of the warden sys- 
tem, will in a very short time break down the 
whole plume trade so far as it lives upon the 
birds of the United States. 
In addition to the special protection given to 
the birds by wardens, the American Ornitholo- 
gists’ Union, through its Protection Committee, 
is taking very active steps in a large number 
of States to improve the bird laws by amend- 
ments, or through the enactment of entirely 
new and effective statutes. 
In view of the urgent need for a continuance 
of the work, and of the encouraging results of 
the first year’s systematic efforts, the under- 
signed committee of the Union feel justified in 
making a second urgent appeal to every bird 
lover, and to every one who desires the preser- 
vation of these beautiful and economically 
valuable birds, to contribute to the fund neces- 
sary for continuing the work on a more ex- 
tended scale. ; 
Contributions should be sent to the treasurer, 
Mr. Wiiliam Dutcher, No. 525 Manhattan 
Avenue, New York City. 
[Signed.] Abbott H. Thayer ; William Brew- 
ster, President Mass. Audubon Society ; Wit- 
mer Stone, Chairman A. O. U. Com. on Bird 
Protection ; Robert Ridgway, Curator of Birds, 
U. S. Nat. Mus.; C. Hart Merriam, Chief U. 
S. Biological Survey, Pres. A. O. U.; A. K. 
Fisher, Ass’t Biologist, U. S. Biological Sur- 
vey; J. A. Allen, Curator Vertebrate Zoology, 
Am. Mus. Nat. His ; Frank M. Chapman, Ass’t 
Curator Ver. Zoology, Am. Mus. Nat. His.; 
William Dutcher, Treasurer, A. O. U. 
SHORTER ARTICLES. 
THE PROPER NAMES OF THE ALPINE CHOUGH 
AND OF THE EGYPTIAN CROCODILE. 
In arecent number of SCIENCE attention was 
called to some names of animals proposed by 
Osbeck (Reise nach Ostindien und China, 1765), 
which had been overlooked by subsequent 
writers and should replace several names in 
common use. Since then I have had the op- 
portunity of examining a copy of the Ger- 
man translation * of Hasselquist’s Iter Pale- 
* ‘Reise nach Palastina.’ Rostock, 1762. 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No 319. 
stinum eller Resa til Heliga Landet, etc., 1757 ; 
and among the many interesting questions of 
synonymy that are opened by this book there 
are two to which I desire to call attention at 
the present time, viz., the proper names of the 
Alpine Chough and of the Hgyptian Crocodile. 
In the first edition (1757) of Hasselquist that 
author déscribes the Alpine Chough as Mone- 
dula pyrrhocorax (p. 238), which was referred to 
the genus Upupa by Linné io his 10th edition 
(1758), and subsequently, in the 12th edition 
(1766), deseribed as Corvus pyrrhocorax. As 
the German translation of Hasselquist’s work: 
appeared in 1762, in which the name Monedula 
pyrrhocorax occurs with a full description on 
pages 238, 239, that author must, be credited 
with first removing the Alpine Chough from 
Upupa, and restricting it under the name Mone- 
dula pyrrhocorax which is the proper name of 
the bird. Several changes in the synonymy of 
the species are necessary which should stand 
as follows: 
MoNEDULA PYRRHOCORAX (L.) Hass. 
Upupa pyrrhocorax Linné. 1758. 
Monedula pyrrhocorax Hass. 1762. 
Corvus pyrrhocorax Linné. 1766. 
Pyrrhocorax alpinus Viell. 1816. 
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax (L.) Temm. 1820. 
Monedula Brehm (1828), being preoccupied by 
Monedula Latr. (1802), has been replaced by 
Coleus Kaup. Latreille’s generic name must 
likewise fall in view of Hasselquist’s prior use 
of Monedula. 
The use by Hasselquist of Linné’s name, La- 
certa crocodilus, for the Egyptian crocodile has 
an important bearing as to the proper name of 
that animal. The Lacerta crocodilus of both 
editions of Linné was a composite species, and 
for that reason the name has been dropped by 
recent writers, the Egyptian species generally 
carrying the name Crocodilus niloticus Laur. 
1769. It seems evident that its proper name is 
Crocodilus crocodilus (Linné), 1758, in conse- 
quence of Hasselquist’s restriction of Lacerta 
crocodilus to the Egyptian animal in 1762. 
I am indebted to Mr. Witmer Stone for sug- 
gestions regarding the synonymy of the Alpine 
Chough. WILLIAM J. Fox. 
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, 
PHILADELPHIA. 
