20 BtrLLETlN 86, UNITED STATES NATlOlirAL MtTSfiUM, 



" Whippoorwill, Caprimulgus rnmor Americanus.^'' The South Amer- 

 ican ChordeUes acutipennis was first brought to notice by Buffon/ 

 who gave, under the name " L'Engoul event acutipenne de la Guyane," 

 a description and a brief note on its habits. Both these species, when 

 subsequently given a binomal name, were referred to the genus 

 CaprimulgVrS Linnaeus, as was also a third species described later by 

 Spix^ as Caprimulgus rupestris. Swainson was the first author to 

 recognize their structural differences from O aprirwulgus, and first 

 separated the nighthawks generically as Ghordeiles? Another spe- 

 cies, described as ChordeUes pusUlus* has since been made the type of 

 a new genus Nannochordeilcs by Dr. E. Hartert.^ Further species 

 which have been at one time or another by some authors referred to 

 ChordeUes, but which all belong in other genera, are Siphonorhis 

 americanus, Nyctiprogne leucopyga, NytipoVas hirundinaceus^ Lwro- 

 calis semitorguatus, Lurocalis nattereri, and Nyctibius leucopterus. 



Nomenclature. — Swainson's name for this generic group, Chor- 

 deUes, first proposed by him in 1832,'^ is by several years the earliest 

 appellation, and is of undoubted application, since it is monotypic, 

 and has for its type by original designation " ChordeUes mrginianus 

 {Caprimulgus america/rvus Wils.)," which is, of course, none other 

 than Caprimulgus virginianus Gmelin. A subsequent generic name 

 is Microrhynchus Lesson,* type by monotypy, Caprimulgus exUis 

 Lesson ; but besides being 11 years antedated by ChordeUes Swainson 

 is, furthermore, untenable under any circumstances by reason of 

 Microrhynchus Dejean,' a genus of Coleoptera, and Microrhynchus 

 Bell,^" a genus of Crustacea. In 1857 Bonaparte, either unaware of 

 Microrhynchus Lesson, or considering it unusable, proposed Bam- 

 phaoratus ^^ in the following fashion : 



9. Bamphaoratus, Bp. 



35. truncatus, Bp. Mus. Br. 



(caberculatusl Jardln. 



36. exilis, Less. 



pruinosus, Tschudl), 



From this it is evident that he intended to include two species: 

 the first an undescribed form to be based on specimens in the British 

 Museum, and which he regards as probably or possibly identical with 



» Hist. Nat. des Olseauz, orig. ed., vol. 1779, pp. 547-548. 



' Avium Spec. Nov. Bras., vol. 2, 1825, p. 2, pi. 2. 



"Fauna Bor.-Amer., vol. 2, 1831 (1832), p. 496. 



* Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1861, p. 182. 



» Ibis, July, 1896, p. 374. 



" See p. 97. 



'Fauna Bor.-Amer., vol. 2, 1831 (1832), p. 496. 



« L'Echo du Monde Savant, July 16, 1843, col. 109. 



"Catalogue des ColeoptSres, 1821, p. 98 (Megerle MS.). 



» Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1835, p. 88. 



" Blvista Contemporanea, vol. 9, February, 1857, p. 216 (p. 9 of reprint). 



