﻿238 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



troduced of late years into our catalogues. We are 

 ever desirous of bestowing honour where it is due ; and 

 we trust that no other motives than those we have here 

 stated will he imputed to us on this occasion. 



(197.) A genus or species in one department of 

 natural history should not be named after a naturalist 

 eminent only in another ; and such names, where prac- 

 ticable, should belong to those groups which have been 

 more immediately benefited by the naturalist to whom 

 the honour is given. — The name of an ornithologist, 

 however highly esteemed and honoured among zoolo- 

 gists, may he utterly unknown to the botanical world ; 

 it is, therefore, highly objectionable to record his name 

 in the annals of a science wherein he has done nothing : 

 equally objectionable is it when this position is reversed. 

 Each branch of natural history, in fact, should per- 

 petuate the names only of those by whom it has been 

 advanced or signally benefited. Such appellations^ 

 therefore, as Goodenovii, Bichenovii, Brownii, Baueri, 

 &c, all designating eminent botanists, should have no 

 place in ornithological nomenclature ; more especially 

 as the high merits of the greater part have already pro- 

 cured for them the lasting honour of a generic distinction, 

 and they are likely to put small account on seeing them- 

 selves introduced where they are not known. Even 

 the true value of a mere compliment is in its being well 

 timed, and happily appropriate to the individual ; but 

 the calling a bird after a botanist, or an insect after an 

 ornithologist, destroys the association of ideas which 

 should be between the name and the object. Linnaeus 

 and his school were not only, in general, very cautious 

 in thus commemorating individuals, but peculiarly 

 happy in their choice of appropriate occasions. " Thus/' 

 observes Linnaeus, " the genus Bauhinia, as named after 

 the two distinguished brothers, John and Caspar 

 Bauhin, has a two-lobed or a twin leaf. Dorstenia, 

 with its obsolete flowers, devoid of all beauty, alludes 

 to the antiquated and uncouth book of Dorstinius. Her- 

 nandia, an American plant, ' the most beautiful of all 



