OF ORNITHOLOGY 55 



Genera, Myiodioctes, The True Flycatching Warblers (5 species). 

 Cardellina, The Red-faced Warbler. 

 Setophaga, The Redstarts (3 species). 



The generic names of the Warblers seem to be pretty gen- 

 erally accepted, and to be without equivalents either in generic 

 or sub-generic terms. The mere fact of a genera having a 

 synonym does not necessarily give it a right to a place in our 

 system without sufficient other reasons. Only when a species 

 differs essentially from the type of the genera, can it receive 

 the designation of sub-genera. When two or more writers of 

 equal merit differ in their naming, and reasons for naming, 

 any given genera, and when each review the past field and 

 state their reasons for the change, do we feel justified in giv- 

 ing to both names a generic equivalence. This does not 

 make either name a synonym of the other, strictly speaking, 

 unless, by mutual or universal consent or a more complete 

 knowledge of the species, one writer is proved right and the 

 other wrong in his premises, or one for any reason takes the 

 preference of the other. 



FAMILY X COEREBIDAE THE HONEY 

 CREEPERS 



Derivation seems uncertain 

 This family is distinguished at once from the last, which it 

 very closely resembles, by the peculiar character of the bill, 

 — and in this respect it greatly resembles the Gerthiidce or 

 Creepers. Though its generic name, Certhiola, is said to be a 

 " diminutive of Latin cerfhia, a creeper," I can find no deri- 

 vation for the family name. It belongs in the tropics, and is 

 not usually regarded as strictly a North American native spe- 

 cies. It might be rightly called the Creeper Warbler. 



Genus, Certhiola. 



The exact position of this curious bird cannot be stated, at 

 present, with any degree of positiveness, and authors have 

 placed it at different times in very different relations. It ap- 

 pears to be a straggler here representing a single species. 



