On the generic name of the Snow-Buntings

In the “Notes from the Leyden Museum” Vol. XXXII, n°. 1, p. 32, Dr. E. D. van Oort published a note about the generic name of the “Snow-Buntings”, and came to the conclusion, that Plectrophenax of Stejneger (1882) had to be accepted as the name for this genus. This conclusion, I am sorry to say, is erroneous, in my opinion. Dr. van Oort rejects the name Passerina Vieillot (Analyse d’une nouvelle Ornithol. élèment., 1816, p. 30) for two reasons. First, because it had been employed in Botany previous to 1816. This, however, is no reason for its rejection, because all modern codes of nomenclature in Zoology have agreed not to consider botanical nomenclature and only to reject generic names if they have been preoccupied in Zoology. Second, because the type of Vieillot’s generic name would be Tanagra cyanea L. This is also wrong, because the type of Passerina, by elimination, is Emberiza nivalis L. Vieillot included in his genus three species: “Ministre” (= Tanagra cyanea L., type of Cyanospiza Baird, 1858), “Ortolan de riz” (= Fringilla oryzivora L., type of Dolichonyx Swainson, 1827) and “Ortolan de neige” — Emberiza nivalis L. The last, not having received another name, thus becomes the type of Passerina, and there was no need to create a new name for it in 1882, and Stejneger’s name Plectrophenax is therefore a synonym of Passerina Vieill.