512 CLASS AVES. 



ones in those parts of the body from which generic characters 

 should be derived. From the time of Linnaeus, the black- 

 birds, thrushes, and mockers have been comprised under the 

 common denomination of Tiirdus. Their usual aliment con- 

 sists of berries, insects, and worms. The bill, in general, is 

 of equal breadth and elevation at the base, and afterwards 

 laterally compressed; the upper mandible is convex, and 

 sloped inwards towards the point, which is curved, without 

 forming a crotchet, or being notched so decidedly as the lani- 

 adae. The lower mandible is straight ; the nostrils are ovoid, 

 partly covered with a naked membrane, and situated near the 

 origin of the beak; the angles of the mouth are furnished 

 with hairs at Intervals, the alignement of which is compared 

 by Meyer to that of the teeth of a rake ; the tongue is carti- 

 laginous, and cleft at its extremity ; the tarsus is longer than 



sanctioned the use of it. No modern terms, however important to the 

 nation which furnishes them, could be otherwise than trivial, and even 

 ludicrous, in the eyes of others, in comparison with words derived from 

 a Greek or Roman source. The contentions that so frequently break 

 out among the chief introducers of these familiar terms, sufficiently 

 proves the instability of the foundation on which they wish to erect their 

 nomenclature ; and it certainly is from no blind partiality that I would 

 bestow a preference on such words as Plyctalaphus, Macrocercus, 

 Pezaporus, or even Palaornis, over such names, although sanctioned 

 by the pen of a BufFon, as Crick, and Papegais, Perruches, and Per- 

 riches." — ' Zool. Jour.' No. ix. Jan. 1827. 



Had it suited the purpose of Mr. Vigors, he might have remarked 

 further, that French writers carry this rage for Gallicising into almost 

 all subjects, as well as natural history. Nor is it entirely the growth of 

 the present day, though it has latterly assumed an alarming luxuriance. 

 It is a long time since the French have travestied all the proper names 

 of classical antiquity. In anatomy and comparative anatomy they have 

 translated literally into French the Latin terms, which sometimes pro- 

 duces an effect sufficiently ludicrous, as, for instance, crura cerebelll, 

 " Jambes de la cervelle,'' &c. It is at all times a serious impediment 

 to the foreign student, desirous of availing himself of their works. Even 

 when they are forced to use the scientific term in the singular number, 

 they take care to Frenchify it as far as possible, by adding an s to form 

 the plural. All this absurdity would not be worth remarking, but for 

 the serious impediment which it opposes to the extension of science. — 

 E. P. 



