222 LANGUAGES AND WORDS 



Anglo-Saxon names of birds. 1 remember that I pointed 

 out to him the list entitled " Nomina Avium " in ^Elfric's 

 Vocabulary, as printed at col. 131 of Wiilcker's reprint 

 of T. Wright's " Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabu- 

 laries," London, 1884. This he at once copied out on 

 slips of paper and arranged in alphabetical order for ready 

 reference. 



By his assistance I was able to give a fuller account 

 of the phrase cockshut time than even that in the New 

 English Dictionary. This article is printed at p. 166 of 

 the Transactions of the (London] Philological Society for 

 1903-6. I mention his name twice on p. 167. 



The only letter I can find from him is the one which 

 I enclose, which gives useful information as to the word 

 Avocet. You will see that he asks me to tell him when I 

 publish my views on the subject. But I have not yet 

 done so, as I cannot find the ultimate origin of the word. 

 The only suggestion I know is that it is a derivative of 

 Lat. avis, a bird ; and this is by no means satisfactory. 

 All I know about it is that it occurs in Florio's Italian- 

 English Dictionary (1598), who gives : ' Avosetta, a 

 fowle like a storke," and that he also spells it Avoserta. 



I also enclose the note which accompanied a present 

 of Part II of his " Dicty. of Birds " (1893). 



I am extremely sorry that I can help you no further. 



Yours, 



W. W. SKEAT. 



The letter concerning the Avocet, to which reference 

 is made, reads : 



10.1.1906. 



MY DEAR SKEAT, 



Thanks once more. I find it was Gesner who 

 first described the Avocet and published its name over- 

 leaf I have transcribed the passage. Aldrovandi, whose 

 3rd volume of " Ornithologia ' was not published till 

 1603, though an Italian, added nothing to the point. I 

 don't know, but I should infer that Gesner, who was a 

 modest man and did not vaunt his own experience, 



