HOW BIRDS ARE NAMED 



Birds have two kinds of names. One is a common, vernacluar, 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 nnder the system of nomenclature established by 

 Linnaeus and their formation and application are governed by certain 

 definite, generally accepted rules. The Linnasan system, as it is now 

 employed by most American ornithologists^ provides that a bird, in 

 addition 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 Birds. 

 Sub-order Oscines, Singing Perching Birds. 

 Family Tiirdid^ Thrushes. 

 Sub-family Turdince Thrushes. 

 Genus, PlanesHcus^ Thrushes. 

 Species, wigratarius American Robin. 



The Robin's distinctive scientific name, therefore, which it alone pos- 

 sesses, is Planesiicus ntigratorius. There are, numerous Other members 

 of the genus Planesiicus, but not one of them is called mi^yatorius and 

 this combination of names, therefore, applied tn only one bird. 



