592 



SGIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. TV. No. 95. 



stances in whicli a name might yet be 

 coined, and express what it is intended to 

 represent. [He offered] this remark as a 

 mere statement, not as an apology." He 

 gave such names as Minomus, Acomus, 

 Dionda, Algoma, Algansea, Agosia, Noeomis, 

 Mecla, Cliola, Codoma, Montana, Tiaroga, 

 Tigoma, Gheonda and Siboma. 



The names have caused some trouble, and 

 have been supposed to be original offspring 

 of the ichthyologist ; but those familiar with 

 Longfellow's Hiawatha will recognize in 

 Nocomis the name of the daughter of the 

 Moon* and mother of Wenonahf (ISToko- 

 mis), corrected by classical standard ! and 

 in Meda the title of a ' medicine man ' (not 

 ' a classical feminine name ') . Other names 

 are geographical or individual. 



In the excellent repoi-t to the Interna- 

 tional Zoological Congress, by Dr. Eaphael 

 Blanchard (1889), it was remarked that it 

 would be generally conceded that natural- 

 ists have almost completely exhausted the 

 Greek and Latin words, simple and com- 

 pound, possible to attribute to animals. :j: 



But the classic languages are even yet, al- 

 though about one hundred thousand names§ 

 grace or cumber the nomenclators, far from 

 being completely exploited. To some of us, 

 indeed, the difficulty in determining upon a 

 new name is rather that of selection of sev- 

 eral that are conjured up by the imagination 

 rather than the coining of a single one. 



Besides the methods of name-making 

 generally resorted to, there are others that 



* ' ' From the full moon fell Nokomis, 

 Fell the beautiful Nokomis. ' ' 



The song of Hiawatha, III., lines 4, 5. 

 fOphiologists will recognize in Wenonah the 

 soiirce of a synonym ( Wenona ) given to the genus 

 Charina by Baird and Girard. Oct., 1896. 



X ' ' On conviendra que les naturalistes ont du 

 ^puiser a peu pres completement la liste des mots 

 grecs ou latins, simple ou composes, qu'il 6tait pos- 

 sible d'attribuer aux animaux." Bui. Soc. Zool. 

 France, XIV., 223. 



I The number one hundred thousand includes 

 duplicates and variants. 



have been little employed. Among the few 

 who have resorted to other than the regular 

 conventional ways is the illustrious actual 

 President of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. His long list 

 of generic names proposed in the various 

 departments of zoology embraces many of 

 unusual origin, and almost always well 

 formed, elegant and euphonious. I can 

 only adduce a few of the ways of naming 

 illustrated by classical examples. 



In ancient Greek there are numerous 

 words ending in -ias, and many substantives 

 with that termination are names of animals 

 given in allusion to some special character- 

 istic. 



Acanthias is the designation of a shark, 

 especially distinguished by the development 

 of a spine at the front of each dorsal fin; 

 the name is derived from a/.w^Oa, spine, and 

 the terminal element. 



Acontias is the name of ' a quick-darting 

 serpent,' and the main component is axcuv, a 

 dart or javelin. 



Anthias is the name of a fish found in the 

 Mediterranean and distinguished by the 

 brilliancy of its color; evidently it was 

 based on av^o?, a flower. The color of the 

 fish may remind one of a showy flower. 



Xiphias is the ancient as well as zoological 

 designation of the sword-fish ; it was plainly 

 coined from £c<po?, a sword. 



These four names give some idea of the 

 range of utility of the particle in question ; 

 they involve the ideas of defensive armature, 

 offensive armature, ornamentation, and 

 action. 



A number of names have been framed by 

 modern zoologists in conformity with such 

 models. Such are Stomias (named by the 

 Greek scholar and naturalist, Schneider) 

 and Ceratias — types of the families Stomiidce 

 (generallj written Stomiatidce) and Ceratiidce. 

 Tamias is another name, well known in con- 

 nection with the chipmunk. 



But there is room for many more of like 



