THE GENERIC NAMES PEDIOCCETES AND

20

Gill, PedioccetesandPooccetes.

\_Ui\

THE GENERIC NAMES PEDIOCCETES AND POOCjETES.

BY

THEODORE

GILL.

The

two generic names, Pedioccetes and ^Pooccetes, have been

much

animadvertedupon, buthave neverthelessbeen adopted in the A. O.U. Check-ListofNorthAmerican Birds. These

names

were adopted because it was supposed that theywere the first

onespublishedforthegenera involved. That such was not the case will be

made

evident. Not only were they not first pub- lished,but before publicationBaird himself substitutedfor

them names

of entirely different etymologyand onlyresembling them in superficial appearance.

The

substitute

names

were of later formation

— "happy

afterthoughts"

—

^though published first in the samevolume.

The

substitute

names

werealsoadoptedgen- erally,andnotuntil long afterwardswere the abandoned

names

takenupagainandgenerallyadopted.

I.

In 1858 Baird publishedhisgreatwork onthe^'Birdsof North America,'undercoverof the^'Reports of Explorations and Sur- veys^' for a Pacific railroad, ^'volume IX.' In the descriptive portionhe introduced, as

new

genera Pooccetes(p. 447) andPedi- occetes (p.625), butin the table of the higher groups, preceding the descriptive portion,heused the

names

Pooecetes and Pedioe- cetes,referring tothepageson whichthegenerawereonfollowing

pagesdescribed.

It is

known

thatBairdsubmittedpartialproofsof hisworkto a correspondentand had been informedthat-caeteswas notalegiti-

mate component, andthat-oecetesshould replaceit.

The

assump- tionthatBaird thus submittedtohasbeen maintainedeversince.

Forexample,Mr. Elliot,in theOctober ₍₁₈₉₈₎

number

of ^'

The

Auk,' has remarked (p. 295) ^that " neither could -n-eSiov and

oiKeVr;?becorrectly

compounded

into Pedioccetes,two blunders in oneword."

V0l .8*9

VI

] Gill,Pedioccetes andPooccetes.

21

True, if theassumption were true! butttcSiov and koitt^scould be

compounded

intoPediocwtesandtheresultantwouldbea

word

abundantlysanctioned byclassicalusage. Putinitalics,thedif- ferencebetween Pedioccetes and Pedioccetesissmall indeed,andas- Baird

may

never haveseen the pattern

name

otherwise than in italics,it isnowonderthat atfirstsighthe might have mistaken the

w

forceandcarriedoverhisimpressionsinto other fields.

II.

Baird unquestionably modelled the

names

Pediocaetes and Poocaetes afterAmmocaetes.

He

sufferedfrom obliquityof vision or

mind

respecting the last

name

andrendered it Ammoccetesin- stead of Ammoccetes: the

name

was so spelled in the ^'Icono- graphic Cyclopaedia'(II,207, 208, 1851).

He

later(1854)based a generic

name

fora true frog {Helocaetes) on the same model.

Finally (1858)hecoined the bird

names

Nephocaetes, Poocaetes

and

Pediocaetes after the

same

patterns. Baird was not acquainted with Greek, and

when

he was informed that the bird

names

shouldhavebeenwrittenNep/ioecetes, Pooecetes,and Pedioecetes,he not unnaturallyassumedthat his criticwas correct and altered the

names

correspondingly in the table of contents. But his critic was not correct, and was probably ignorantof the

model

Baird had used. That model was justified by a

number

of ancientGreek names.

Two

of thebest

known names

of ichthy- ologywereclassical Greek

names

used forgenerawhich are the types of distinct families

—

Exocoetus and Hemerocoetes:

Exo-

coetus,misapplied byLinnaeus totheflying fishes, appears in the worksof Theophrastus, Aelianusand Oppianus, and was a

com-

ponent of e£w and kolttj

—

a fish sleeping out of the water;

Hemerocoetes, misapplied by Cuvier andValenciennes, to a

New

Zealand genus of fishes,occurs as the

name

of an undetermined fish in Oppian, and was a

compound

of rjfjajpa, day and kolttj.

Another well-knownzoological

name

isthat of agenusofCystig- nathoid batrachians

—

Borborocoetes:thiswasliterallyreproduced fromadesignation inthe^'Batrachomyomachia^'translatedinLid- dell and Scott'sGreek-English Lexicon as "mudcoucher." Still further,bya notable coincidence the

name

Pediocaetes is closely

22 GlLL.PedioccetesandPooctstes. LJan.

approximated by a medieval Greek

name

used by

Maximus

Planudesin his 'Anthology'

—

Pedocoetes

—

^the only difference beingthatthefirstcomponentof Pedocoeteswasttc'Soi/,the ground, whilethat of Pediocoeteswasire&lov,a plain.

These examples amply justified Baird in the coining of the

names

in question, and the only mistake he

made

was in the substitution ofaforo.

III.

It will be thus seen that Pediocaetes and Poocaetes,by a very slight alteration,might have been corrected into Pediocoetes and Poocoetes.

As

it is.through misunderstanding,

names

of entirely different etymology were suggested in place of them, and those verydifferentnames must be accepted.

They

must be accepted- forthe following reasons:

—

i.

The

substitute

names

Pooecetes and^•Pedioccetes were delib- eratecorrectionsof Poocaetesand Pediocaetes.

2.

They

were published not only simultaneously with the incorrect names,but^"stand first in the book."

3.

They

were adoptedinthequartoedition of the "Catalogue of North American Birds" (Oct. 1858) and the octavo edition

(1859).

4.

They

werein part at least accepted before theincorrectly formed names, Pooecete; having been adopted bySclater in1859 (P.Z. S.,379) and Pedioccetes¹ by

Hayden

in1861 (Trans.

Am.

Phil. Soc, N. S.XII, 172).

c.

They

weregenerallyadoptedatfirstandonly replacedlater by^theincorrectnames.

IV.

The

data respecting the speciesinquestion giveninthe A. O.U.

code and ^{Check-List of} N. A. Birds should be replaced by the following^:

—

1Suckleyalsoin1861, retained the textnamePediocaetes.

^°'Sg9 VI

] Oberiiolser,

A New

Hylocichla. 23

Pedioecetes

Baird.

PedioecetesBaird,B. N. A. 1858,^xxi.

(=

Pediocaetes, p. 625).

308.

Pedioecetes

phasianellus (Linn.).

Pedioecetesphasianellus (part.) Baird,B. N. A. 1858, xliv.

308^.

Pedioecetes

phasianellus

columbianus

(Ord).

Pedioecetesphasianellus var.columbianusCoues, Key, 1872, 234-

308^.

Pedioecetes

phasianellus

campestris

Ridgw.

Pedioecetesphasianelluscampestris Ridgw. Proc. Biol. Soc.

Wash. II, 1884,93.

Pooecetes

Baird.

PooccetesBaird,B. N.A. 1858,xx.

(=

Poocaetes,p. 447).

540.

Pooecetes gramineus

(Gmel.).

PooecetesgramineusBaird,B. N.

Am.

1858,xxxix.

540*7.

Pooecetes gramineus

confinis (Bair'd).

[Poocaetesgramineus'] variety confinis Baird, B. N.

Am.

1858, 448.

[Pooecetesgramineus]var.confinisCoues, Key, 1872,136.

540/'.

Pooecetes gramineus

affinis (Miller).

Pooccetes gramineusaffinisMiller,Auk,V, 1888, 404.

DESCRIPTION OF A NEW HYLOCICHLA.

BY

HARRY

C. OBERHOLSER.

True

^{Hylocichla ustulataappearstobedivisibleintotwofairly}

welldefined geographical races,oneof which iswithout aname.

The

typeof Hylocichla ustulata

came

from the Columbia River, and examination shows^itto belongtothe form characteristic of theNorthwest Coast region.

The

bird inhabiting interior and southern California

may

thereforebecalled

Hylocichla

ustulata cedica, subsp.

now

Chars, subsp.

—

Hylocichla If.u. ustulalae similis,sect hypoc&ondrtis

*tpartibus superior ibus pallidioribus acminusrufescetitibus.