THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 57 



would be the inevitable consequence, still the satis- 

 faction arising from having done all in one's power 

 to forward the cause of science and truth, should 

 amply recompence the author for loss of favor with 

 the populace. Wilson did not stoop to such paltry 

 means to gain popularity, and yet his work is one of 

 the most popular which has ever appeared on Orni- 

 thology. After having misled the people, it is scarcely 

 fair to blame them for those mistakes which have 

 been confirmed by the scientific. And yet Selby 

 at vol. I, p. 199, wonders how the Common Locus" 

 tel, Locust ella sibilans, could ever have been called 

 a Lark; the Locustel, however, is not more dissim- 

 ilar from the Larks, than the Pinnoc ( Calamopliilus) 

 is from the Tits (Parus,J and yet Selby calls the 

 Pinnoc a Tit ! Consistency should at least be pre- 

 served. 



I shall now give a few of Audubon's sentiments 

 on the subject. Speaking of the inappropriateness 

 of the name Belted Kingfisher, as applied to the 

 Alcedo alcyon, he says : — " I should wish to call it, 

 (the Belted Kingfisher,) as I think it ought to have 

 been called, the United States' Kingfisher. My rea- 

 son for this, will, I hope, become apparent to you, when 

 I say that it is the only bird of its genus found upon 

 the inland streams of the Union. Another reason of 

 equal force may be adduced, which is that, although the 

 males of all denominations have, from time immemo- 

 rial, obtained the supremacy, in this particular case 

 the term Belted applies only to the female, the male 



