30 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 



did when lie merely viewed it as an ingenious assem- 

 blage of wheels and springs." Ser. of Zool. vol. ii., 

 p. 305. 



Such observers as White, Knapp, Howit, Jesse, 

 &c., would render their volumes ten times more 

 useful, more valuable, and more satisfactory were 

 they imbued with a little of the scientific spirit which 

 marks the higher order of Naturalists — that is to 

 say, Naturalists whose peculiar department requires 

 the higher powers of the mind. As the present 

 chapter is devoted principally to the discussion of 

 Nomenclature, I shall now anatomize the paper of 

 Mr. Strickland — the grand champion of the sta- 

 tionary and stagnating system, now so universally 

 abandoned. To begin with the beginning : — " To the 

 Editor of the Analyst. — Sir, In your last number 

 (No. X.) is a paper on the ' Nomenclature of Birds,' 

 on which I am desirous of offering a few remarks. 

 I think the writer's plan of altering many of the 

 English names of our common birds, objectionable, 

 because they more properly form part of our vernac- 

 ular tongue than of the language of Science." But 

 if Mr. Strickland will turn to that article he will 

 find that the writer has not proposed to alter " many 

 of the English names of our common birds" — nor 

 has he altered any. In the whole article the only 

 English name he has altered is — Snowy Owl, fStrix 

 nyctea, Gm ;) for this he has substituted — and very 

 appropriately — Gray Snowflake (Nyctea cinerea, 

 Stephens ;) and this bird has only lately been dis- 



