36 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 



hence the fathers of Natural history hare wisely 

 employed the Latin language as the source of their 

 nomenclature, being generally understood by the 

 learned among all civilized nations. English names, 

 are useful only to denote those natural objects which 

 are so common or remarkable in our own country as 

 to attract the attention even of the vulgar, but as 

 the science of natural history does not in the least 

 require their assistance, I should be sorry to see 

 them in any degree substituted for those Latin 

 appellations which are universally current in the 

 republic of science. The first sentence of this ex- 

 tract requires no comment — no one combats the 

 sentiment it conveys ; but the second must not pass 

 so easily. It seems that Mr. Strickland woidd 

 deprive a large portion of the community of the 

 convenience of calling many birds by English 

 names, merely because they are not " so common or re- 

 markable in our own country, as to attract the attention 

 of the vulgar." Truly this is very obliging — because 

 the vulgar have not been sufficiently enlightened to 

 look on every part of the creation as equally remark- 

 able and worthy of investigation, therefore those 

 who wish to gain information concerning a parti- 

 cular object, are to be debarred from the convenience 

 of calling it in conversation by an English name, 

 and forsooth, must wait till it has become sufficiently 

 " common or remarkable" to be thought worthy of a 

 name by the vulgar. As for their being " substitu- 

 ted in any degree for the Latin," no one desires that, 



