HOW BIRDS ARE NAMED. 
Birds have two kinds of names. One is a common, vernacular, or 
popular name; the other is a technical or scientific name. The first is 
usually given to the living bird by the people of the country it inhabits. 
The second is applied to specimens of birds by ornithologists who 
classify them. 
Common names in their origin and use know no law. Technical 
names are bestowed under the system of nomenclature established by 
Linnzeus and their formation and application are governed by certain 
definite, generally accepted rules. The Linnzan system, as it is now 
employed by most American ornithologists, provides that a bird, in ad- 
dition to being grouped in a certain Class, Order, Family, etc., shall 
have a generic and specific name which, together, shall not be applied 
to any other animal. 
Our Robin, therefore, is classified and named as follows: 
CLASS AVES, BIRDS. 
ORDER PASSERES, PERcHING Brrps. 
SUB-ORDER Oscines, SINGING PERCHING BIRDS. 
FamiLy Zurdidzg, Thrushes, Solitaires, Stonechats, Bluebirds, etc. 
Sus-FAmMiILy 7urding, Thrushes. 
Genus, Werula, Thrushes. 
SPECIES, migratoria, American Robin. 
The Robin’s distinctive scientific name, therefore, which it alone 
possesses, is erula migratoria. ‘There are numerous other members 
of the genus JZerula, but not one of them is called mzgratoria, and this 
combination of names, therefore, is applied to only one bird. 
It should also be observed that, under what is known as the ‘Law of 
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