56 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 



animadverted on above. He calls the Squatarola 

 cinerea (Gray Plover, and PluviaUs cinerea of 

 Willughby,) " Bastard Plover" — a singularly unfor- 

 tunate appellation, for not only is the specific term 

 " Bastard" incorrect, but also the generic name 

 " Plover," that is to say, it is incorrect according to 

 the system adopted by Selby, in which the species 

 does not rank in the genus Pluver (PluviaUs,) but 

 in the genus Squatarol (Squatarola.) The names 

 adopted by Stephens, in Shaw's General Zoology, 

 are as correct as could be desired — " Gray Squata- 

 rol, (Squatarola cinerea, Cuv.") The Golden 

 Pluver, (PluviaUs vividis, Will.) seems to me to be 

 the type of the genus Pluver, or Plover as the word 

 has been corrupted into. Selby does not attempt 

 to excuse the specific name bastard, but he offers 

 the following apology for using the name Pluver, 

 which belongs to another genus : — " I have consider- 

 ed it most advisable not to let generic distinction 

 (however necessary,) interfere with the English name 

 Pluver, so long attached to this species; as my 

 ambition has been, in the letter-press of the present 

 work, to construct a popular manual of British 

 Ornithology." This is not paying any great compli- 

 ment to the understandings of the people, and I think 

 that on further consideration, Mr. Selby will own, 

 that he has rated the " popular" intellect too low. 

 It is rather hard to understand how exactitude and 

 accuracy should render a work unpopular, but sup- 

 posing even, for the sake of argument, that that 



