2732 Birds. 



for ' small,' and ornis, ' a bird.' Are the birds constituting this genus 

 smaller, for example, than those of which are made up the different 

 genera of the humming birds ? Lastly, is it captious to say that such 

 generic names as Merganetta (p. 299) would better be avoided ? 

 Merganetta means, I presume, the ' goosander duck,' netta being the 

 Athenian name for the Greek word nessa, ' a duck.' But if the bird, 

 of which it is said this genus is at present composed, is neither a 

 goosander nor a duck, it is surely not half of the one and half of the 

 other ; and if, in ornithological science, it was to be constituted a dis- 

 tinct genus by itself, as it would seem to have been in Nature from 

 its creation, why did it not receive on the occasion a name indepen- 

 dent of others, and not including the names of two genera already 

 established ? 



Dr. Wagner, whose Reports on Ornithology have given rise to the 

 foregoing remarks, takes occasion, when complaining of the needless 

 separation of the genus Guiraca from Coccothraustes, to say, " If this 

 confusion in the manufacture of genera continues, we shall soon have 

 as many genera as species," (p. 65). But highly inconvenient, and, 

 except when necessary, greatly to be deprecated as is such a proceed- 

 ing, even a very considerable multiplication of the genera already in 

 existence, under new and distinct names, seems preferable to the 

 combination and modification of those names which are at present 

 made use of in established genera and species. It will, in all proba- 

 bility, be found that, in the best and most unexceptionable nomencla- 

 ture that could be devised, the immense array of names and the 

 learned dress in which they are shrouded will be formidable and con- 

 tinued obstacles to a numerous class of individuals, who would other- 

 wise advance in science with much more ease and much more pleasure. 

 It need not be doubted that not a few, who have not had the benefit 

 of what is called a learned education, have been deterred, in conse- 

 quence, from entering with ardour and hope on the delightful and the 

 ennobling study of Natural History. Scientific nomenclature is, 

 however, indispensable ; and if it has its evils, these are very greatly 

 overbalanced by its advantages. Still it will scarcely be denied that 

 such a nomenclature should be of the simplest and most intelligible 

 construction ; that it should, in itself, convey as much knowledge as 

 possible in regard to the objects to which it is applied ; and that every 

 means should be employed to soften and to explain it to the student, 

 who is either altogether ignorant of the learned languages, or whose 

 knowledge in this respect is not sufficiently extensive for the decom- 

 position of the involved and learned names which meet him in every 



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