<I>Scolecophagus</I> preoccupied

128 General

Notes.

Scolecophagus

preoccupied.

Scolecophagus Swainson, 1831,

commonly

^{used for a} genus ^of

North American

_birds,ispreoccupiedbyScolecophagus Geoffroy,^1795. Forthe' genus^{of birds}

known

asScolecophagus the term

Euphagus may

^be

^em-

ployed.

The

latter

was

_{used by}Cassin in 1866 (Proc.Acad. Nat.Sci.

Phila., 1866, p. 413) forPsarocolius cyanocephalusWagler.

The two

spe- cies willthusstandas:

Euphagus

^carolinus(Miiller),and

Euphagus

cyano- cephalus (Wagler).

—

_{Charles W.Richmond.}

On

the

name

Eniconetta.

PolystictaEyton,1836, asthe generic

name

for Steller'sDuck, _{has long} sincebeen_rejectedinfavorofEniconetta Gray, 1840, because of an al- leged ^earlier Polysticte Smith, ¹⁸³⁶ (sometimes erroneously quoted

"1835"). ^Itcanbesaid, however,^thatEyton'sPolysticta

was

_published

in April, 1836 _(Catal. Brit. Birds, p. 58), while Smith's _{Polysticte ap-} peared^notearlierthan

June

_(Smithconsistentlyquotes^it "June, 1836"

in his Illustrations of South African _Zoology),

and

_possiblyeven later.

Smith

did not return from his expedition ^into the interior of South Africa until the middle of March, 1836, after

which

he prepared ^his

"Report^{of the}Expedition ^forExploring Central Africa,"published ^at

Cape Town. The

datecited

by Smith may mean

^thatofthecompletion of his

MS.

In

any

^event Eyton's

name

Polysticta ^is prior to Polysticte Smith,

and

should beusedfor

Anas

stelleriPallas.

—

Charles W.Richmond.