26 



THE OOLOGIST 



O. U. ; yet my kindly correspondent, 

 Herr, Nehrkorn, of Leipzig, maintains, 

 as do Godman, and others, that these 

 two are synonomous. (If you object to 

 my spelling of the word just used, let 

 me gently remind you that our well es- 

 tablished English word, "synonym" is 

 a mis-spelling of the Greek) How one 

 shudders to read, for the Black-capped 

 Petrel, the recent epithet, "diabolica." 

 No wonder the poor creature is now 

 extinct! 



Lamentable, enough, it is to use an 

 equivocal English word; but how 

 much more unfortunate the use of 

 such a classical term as the very 

 equivocal, "scalaris," (for a Petrel). 

 In truth, the original coiner of this 

 word should, for lucidity's sake,have 

 tacked to his title the explicit explan- 

 ation, "means having feathers like 

 scales." Confusion worse-confounded" 

 marks the current treatment of some 

 allied races. The two conspecies of a 

 furtive Flycatcher have had the two 

 names, "Traill" and "Alder," "trailli" 

 and "alnorum," bandied about until 

 none but an expert any longer knows 

 which is which, or why! Really, one 

 would think that the blunder of one 

 set of nomenclatural interchanges of 

 this sort would have served to bring 

 about stability, but, no, indeed! As 

 regards the matter of specific sub- 

 division, with such plastic Genera as, 

 for a conspicuous example, the Genus, 

 Octocoris. Now, we have no less than 

 twenty-three Horned Lark races, rec- 

 ognized, north of the Mexican Border. 

 Of these, two occupy, each, a curious- 

 ly proximate pair of tiny areas just 

 where Northern and Southern Cali- 

 fornia come together. And one of 

 'these has received the entirely stilt- 

 ed sub-specific title, "Leucansiptila." 

 Really, gentleman of the (Bird) Jury, 

 when even a classicist must hie to his 

 Greek and Latin Lexicon, whensoever 

 a new "millimeter race" is brought 



forth, it seems time to call out, im- 

 periously, for both simplicity and 

 clearness, (as well as accuracy!) in 

 the nomenclatural domain!. 



How rife, in both classical and vul- 

 gar names, is inconsistency. We say 

 Sage "Hen," but Prairie "Chicken." 

 Again, some say Franklin "Grouse," 

 others, Franklin "Spruce Partridge," 

 and which is right? How unfortunate, 

 moreover, to perpetuate, in vernacular 

 language, so ridiculous a scientific 

 mis-statement as that involved, (both 

 in Europe and in America), in the 

 term, Oyster "catcher!" How utterly 

 arbitrary and meaningless, moreover, 

 the use of terms, once classic, but now 

 transferred to the vernacular, such, 

 for example, as the Term, "Prothono- 

 tary," (Warbler). Quite bad enough 

 it was that the original scientific name 

 should have been mis-spelled, but far 

 worse that some man's fancy that 

 this Warbler's beak bore a slight, 

 fancied resemblance to the quill-pen 

 of our fore-fathers should have been 

 embalmed in a name! For pity's sake, 

 why not give this exqiusite Warbler 

 of the woodland river margins a fit- 

 ting and distinctive name, "River" 

 Warbler? 



Through but an amateur, and an ob- 

 scure one, at that, I have always re- 

 belled against the A. O. U. Fiat dis- 

 placing the title, "American," where- 

 soever occurring. 



In the A. O. U. Lists, why, thus take 

 away, without replacing? We have 

 "Western" Robins, why not, then 

 "Eastern" Robins? And, even where 

 we have, not only Eastern and West- 

 ern but Southern, and perhaps, Cen- 

 tral, species and sub-species, why al- 

 ter a good, meaningful term like 

 "American," in case of Genera involv- 

 ing, for America, but a single species, 

 Coot, Woodcock. (Yet requiring dis- 

 tinction from the corresponding Euro- 

 pean birds). 



