120 
Official Checklist of the Birds of Australia. 
CROCETHIA : G. “shore runner.” Billberg gives derivation “ Croce, litus ” 
(shore), “ theio, curro ” (I run). This makes the proper pronunciation cro- 
cclhxa. 
curlew : See Numenius. 
DACELO : An anagram of alcedo, L. kingfisher, invented by Leach, 1815, and 
having no further etymological meaning. 
DAPTION : An anagram of pintado, Portuguese word for “painted.” The 
bird was called the Pintado bird by Portuguese sailors. See Emu, VI., 22. 
DKLEUM : G. dicairon is the name used by Aelianus for a small Indian bird. It is 
a well-developed genus in the Indian Region. 
DIOMEDE A : This name came into ornithology from the A ves Diomedeae of Pliny, 
which inhabited islands of that name in the Adriatic Sea. The birds were 
called after Diomede, a Trojan War hero, according to the mythological story. 
Albatrosses, of course, are not found in the Adriatic Sea. 
DROMAIUS : In Vieillot’ s Analyse, d'une nouvelle Ornilhologie his name for the Emu 
appears on page 54 as “ 109 Emou Dromiceius.” The word Dromaius occurs 
(with other names) at the end of the book, p. 70, in a vocabulary of “ nouveaux 
noms tirds du grec ” thus—“ Dromaius [ drojnaios (in Greek letters) velox].” 
From its position Dromiceius is apparently the correct name. But there are 
good grounds for thinking it is an error. Vieillot was a good scholar and made 
good names. Dromaius is a good name ; Dromiceius is not (though there is 
a Greek word drOmikos), the ei-part of it being meaningless, unnecessary, and 
unexplained by Vieillot. Further, Dromaius written badly (with the a gaping 
at the top and so resembling ce) could quite conceivably be read Dromiceius 
by a printer. Newton calls “Dromiceius” an “obvious misprint.” It has 
been so treated in the present list. 
drongo : See Chibia . 
EDOLIISOMA : Edolios is the Greek word for a kind of bird. Buffon mentions 
a bird (a cuckoo) known at the Cape of Good Hope as “ edolib ,” because it 
repeats that word. 
EGRETTA : Latinized form, suggested probably by English egret or French 
aigrette. 
EMBLEM A : Greek word for a tesselated pavement, from the bird’s appearance, 
perhaps, or possibly the name is formed from the word emblem. 
EMU : The name “ Emu ” has an interesting origin. The first specimen was taken 
in Februar 3 % 1788, not far from where the Central Railway Station of the City 
of S\ r dney now stands, and was thought by the officers who examined it to be 
like the bird described in Goldsmith’s History of the Earth and Animated Nature, 
the only book of reference available —and therein called “ Emu.” This was the 
South American Ostrich or Rhea. The new bird was accordingly named the 
New South Wales “ Emu." The word emu is from a Portuguese word “ Ema ,” 
a crane, and was applied at that time to large birds of ostrich-like appearance ; 
it is used now only for the Australian bird. 
EOPSALTRIA : “Dawn-singer,” Greek, eos, dawn, and psallria , harper. 
EPTHIANURA : An obscure word, probably wrongly spelt. The -ura no doubt 
means tail. P never immediately precedes th in Greek words, but ph fre¬ 
quently does (diphthong, phthisis). It has been suggested that the first 
part of the word is connected with the Greek verb phthino or phthio (I waste 
or decay), on account of the bird having a shortish tail. Another derivation 
suggested is Greek ephlhos , dressed or boiled and oura, tail. But why was the 
tail so called, why not simply ephthura? Further, the Greek word ephlhos 
should be spelt in English “ hephthos.” 
EROLIA : A generic name proposed by Vieillot, and U3ed by Stephens, 1819. 
Origin doubtful. 
ERYTHRURA : Erythros G. means red, so Erythrops, erythropterus , &c. 
