ORDER PASSERES. 511 



Though the plumage, and even many of the habits, of these 

 birds, present remarkable differences, there are no essential 



but we cannot avoid observing that this system is by no means unobjec- 

 tionable. It is very well calculated to create confusion in the mind of 

 the student of natural history. As long as the Linnaean system of 

 division was adhered to, there could be no confusion in this way. The 

 name of a species might safely be given to a genus, the species itself 

 being properly distinguished by a peculiar epithet ; but when naturalists 

 saw the necessity of creating sections and subdivisions in the Linnaean 

 orders and genera, it woidd have been as well if they had also seen the 

 necessity of characterising such groups, not by trivial, but by scientific 

 names — not by names formed from their vernacular and fluctuating 

 idioms, but by names taken from those languages, which long prescrip- 

 tion, intrinsic excellence, stability, and universality among scholars have 

 consecrated to the use of science. The contrary practice has arisen from 

 an overweening national vanity, which it would be flattery to excuse as 

 patriotism — from that aspiration after universal empii'e, which should 

 receive from the nations of Europe as efi'ectual a check in the scientific, 

 as it has experienced in the political world. The observations of Mr. 

 Vigors on this subject are so admirable to the purpose, that our readers 

 will thank us for transcribing them : 



" This attempt at superseding the use of scientific names, by the intro- 

 duction of French names, is beginning to be carried to an extent, which 

 leaves no doubt of the ultimate object in view. In almost all professed 

 works of science, it is the French word that is quoted, and not the scien- 

 tific. In the veiy ' Dictionnaire ^ ' before us, the same language furnishes 

 the title of every article to which we are to refer, whether belonging to 

 a genus or a species : it is Perroquet we must consult, not Psittacus. 

 The French word is everywhere the protagonist of the piece, and if the 

 scientific name is at all introduced, it is in the character of an humble 

 companion in the suite of synonymes. If this practice is not met by us 

 with decided opposition in the outset, it will gain a head, against which 

 we shall in vain endeavour to contend. I do not oppose this mode of 

 nomenclature on the narrow ground of every language having an equal 

 right with the French to become the language of science, but upon the 

 broad principle, that there should be but one common language in science 

 —that every nation should unite in one universal mode of nomenclature 

 which could be generally understood — and that naturalists shoidd endea- 

 vour to imitate the harmony observable throughout the objects they 

 cultivate, by the only means in their power, however humble these may 

 be — a corresponding harmony in their language. In choosing this com- 

 mon language, it is unnecessary to contend for the superior claims of that 

 which is founded on classical authority. Time and science have equally 



1 ' Diet, des Sciences Naturelles.' 



