Birds. 2731 



gard to such a genus, is it not natural to ask, if this bird is a partridge 

 at all why is it not arranged among the partridges, however great may 

 be its relative size ? And if it is not a partridge, could it not have 

 been possible to give to the new genus, which it required, a distinct 

 and independent name, altogether unconnected with any generic name 

 already in existence ? (p. 78). The same questions maybe put in 

 reference to the genus Sternula (p. 83), which it is presumed is a di- 

 minutive of Sterna, and means, therefore, the little or lesser tern. In 

 this way it has the additional disadvantage of coming in contact with 

 the vernacular name of Sterna minor. Of a strange nature, at least 

 so far as I can see, is the generic name Holocnemis (p. 286) : of this 

 the component parts are, I presume, holos, ' whole ' or ' entire,' and 

 kneme, the ' leg ' or ' shank.' That a bird may have its leg of a thick- 

 ness or length greatly disproportioned to its other members, I can 

 easily conceive ; but how it can be said to be wholly or entirely a leg 

 is above my comprehension. If it is replied that this is not the mean- 

 ing of Holocnemis, and that it merely points out the circumstance that 

 the various species of this genus have their legs whole or entire ; will 

 it, in such a case, be maintained that it is a distinction in Nature that 

 certain birds have their legs entire, while others have them impaired 

 or curtailed ? or will the leg of any bird be represented as imperfect, 

 when it is found thoroughly adapted to the purposes for which it was 

 intended by its Creator ? Objections of a similar character may, it is 

 conceived, be brought forward against the genus Hemipodius (p. 294), 

 which is doubtless compounded of the words hemisus, ' the half,' and 

 pous, ' a foot.' It is surely unphilosophical to say that Nature has 

 given only ' a half foot' to any of her individual productions; and it 

 may be safely affirmed that the foot of the birds composing the genus 

 Hemipodius is to them a foot as complete, and as perfect for their 

 purpose, as is the most amply developed foot which may be found 

 among the kindred genera from which they have been separated. 

 Upon a principle of the same nature, the word Notherodius (p. 297) 

 is not unobjectionable as the name of a genus: its roots are nothos, a 

 'bastard' or ' spurious,' and erodios, ' a heron.' But, in the arrange- 

 ment of Nature and in the eye of reason, the bird here termed a 

 spurious heron is as much entitled to a distinct and independent sta- 

 tion as is the heron or any other ; and, by the same kind of reasoning, 

 the heron might be said to be itself spurious, because it does not in 

 all points resemble the bird of which we are speaking. Smicrornis 

 (p. 71) would also appear to be a most vague and indefinite name for 

 a genus, if, as is supposed, it is composed of smikros, the Attic word 



