244 ON THE classification op biuds. 
deed, those few groups which are already distinguished 
by a separate vernacular name, as the redstarts, wagtails, 
robins, and stonechats. The Sylvia regulus, being 
at the head of this family, should more especially be 
termed a warbler par nxcellenee ; that is, if the same 
rule is to guide us both in scientific and in vernacular no. 
menclature. By this plan, some sort of connection will 
be pointed out between the modern subgenera ; and we 
shall not have two birds, actually belonging to the same 
genus (like the yellow and the gold-crested warblers), 
known by two names, which have no apparent relation 
to each other. 
(204.) In regard to the second proposition, that each 
genus and subgenus in general ornithology should have 
a distinct vernacular name, the difficulties are of a much 
more insuperable nature. It would require the coinage 
of between 300 and 400 English names, for birds of 
whose manners and habits we know little or nothing ; 
and, after ail, what possible use would this accomplish? 
Is it not sufficient, for instance, to designate the five pri- 
mary groups of the parrots by their present well known 
names of inaccaws, parrots, cockatoos, lories, and parra- 
keets, without breaking these up into twenty-five others*, 
which would make ordinary persons lose sight, in fact, 
of the groups themselves, in a multiplicity of small dis- 
tinctions which they never could comprehend, and which 
would only peqilex them. But what should we do with 
the woodpeckers (jPicus L.), a group of the same value, 
and therefore containing as great a number of subgenera 
as the parrots ? Five and twenty names, at this rate 
must be devised for all the variations of a woodpecker ! 
and they must be appropriate, for otherwise, what is 
their use ? It is only when we come to follow a theory, 
whether in science or in common matters, down to its 
details, and see how it will work, that we can judge 
of its practicability or of its use. Some few vernacular 
names, indeed, may be occasionally added, but the con- 
* This will be the exact number of the sub^encra when the five tvnes 
of each are characterised in our second volume. 
