THE OOLOGIST 



25 



loose she would have headed with the 

 wind straight towards the outlet and 

 down the stream towards home. 



Amenities of Nomenclature. 



Having been a reader and a frequent 

 contributor to the pages of The Oolo- 

 gist almost from the beginning, I 

 wish to take the liberty which is gen- 

 erally vouchsafed to us, "old boys," of 

 saying somewhat, in a matter where- 

 in myself, and others, are in agree- 

 ment with a frequently expressed sent- 

 iment of the Editor of The Oologist: 

 Incessant changes necessitated, in a 

 manuscript which has engaged much 

 of my attention for fifteen years, by 

 the unending changes made in scien- 

 tific nomenclature, would often have 

 led me deliberately to curse the Pro- 

 crustean "Law of Priority,", — were I 

 not a clergyman! 



It is quite bad enough to have the 

 specific name for our well-known Mal- 

 lard changed from the simple and 

 meaningful, "boschas" to the cumber- 

 some and not-especially-distinctive 

 "platyrhynchos ; " but it does grate up- 

 on the classic sensibilities of a student 

 to see perpetuated, by the Law of 

 Priority, the spelling, "hyemalis," for 

 no better reason than that an original 

 describer slipped up on his Latin! 



Now, for a very gentle comment on 

 certain changes; not always changes 

 for the better. Many of us had grown 

 to love the Tern name, "Sterna." To 

 us, it was a meaningful word. Now, 

 it is displayed by "Thalasseus, but 

 why? The Terns are by no means dis- 

 tinctively "sea" birds. One similar 

 change, however, appeals to one; the 

 present vogue of calling the "Least" 

 Tern by the fit title, "Sternula." One 

 does, per contra, vehemently protest 

 against the rather stilted substitution 

 of such titles as "Onychoprion," 

 (Sooty Tern), for Sterna. How un- 

 wieldly, for another turn, the present 



scientific name of the Bridled Tern, 

 "Melanosterna anaetheta recognita." 

 If we are to have a Melano-sterna, 

 why not, pray, Albo-sterna. And why 

 perpetuate a mis-spelling like "anae- 

 theta," (for anaestheta), and that, the 

 more, since the term, "anaesthetic," 

 but inaccurately described the tem- 

 peramental quality thus sought to be 

 distinguished (in the Bridled Tern)? 

 And, what distinctiveness, will you 

 tell us, inheres with the term, "recog- 

 nita," which merely chronicles the 

 sempiternal warfare being waged con- 

 cerning what Dr. Dwight has so witt- 

 ily termed, "millimeter races?" How 

 arbitrary and meaningless, again, the 

 sub-specific (Black Tern) title, "suri- 

 namensis." We certainly have no 

 Surinam in North America! To some 

 of us, this use appears to us quite as 

 futile as that of the term, "Arkansas" 

 for a Kingbird that never sees Arkan- 

 sas except during the migrations. 



One cannot admire the false Latinity 

 of words like "exulans," Wandering 

 Albatross, and the coining of a mon- 

 grel-Latin term, "glupisha" out of a 

 sailor nick-name. One would also 

 question the genitive form, "kuhlii," 

 for one of the Puffin-form birds; in 

 which connection, moreover, one 

 would really like to know why we 

 must now substitute "Ardenna," in 

 some cases, for "Puffinus?" 



Curiously enough, we have specific 

 words of absolutely identical mean- 

 ing, "creatopus" and "carnei-pes," 

 "Pink-footed" and "Pale-footed" Shear- 

 waters. Many scientific names give 

 one the impression of mere striving 

 after effects. For example, the sub- 

 stitution, (for good, old fashioned 

 "Puffinus" of "Thyellodroma : (for the 

 Wedge-tailed Shearwater). 



Referring again to the tern, kuhlii, 

 as applied, (by some), to the Cory 

 Shearwater number 87 (A. O. U.). Now 

 the Black-tail Shearwater is No. 97„ A. 



