1923. Notes. 



NOTES. 



19 



ZOOLOGY, 



Shakespeare's " Scamel." 



I wish to put forward what I beheve to be a possible solution of a 

 problem which has hitherto baffled the commentators of Shakespeare, 

 In the " Tempest " Act ii., Sc. ii., there occurs this passage : — 



I'll bring thee 

 To clust'ring filberds, and sometimes I'll get thcie 

 Young scamels from the rock. 



It has b-^en thought that the word " scamel " is a misprint for " seamal," 

 i.e., sea-mew (seagull) or for " Stannel " a Kestrel. For instance, in 

 Whittingham's edition (1814) which I happen to have at hand, " sea- 

 melis " is the word used. In Newton's " Dictionary of Birds," pp. 814, 

 815, the following note occurs : — Scamel, a word used once by Shakespeare 

 . , . that has given rise to many conjectures . . . but is commonly 

 accepted as a bird's name, a signification rendered more likely by the fact 

 that at Blakeney, on the coast of Norfolk, it was applied to a Godwit 

 (Stevenson, B. Norf., ii., p. 260), though it is not to be supposed that 

 Shakespeare used it in that sense. It seems to be otherwise unknown." 



The v/ord " scameler " is used to my knowledge at Ardkeen, Kircubbin, 

 and Portaferry on Strangford Lough, and is an uncommon local name for 

 the Red-breasted Merganser [Mergus senator). Confusion between this 

 bird and the Sheldrake occurs easily in the popular mind. This is exem- 

 pliiied by the fact that in some places the local name " Scale-duck " refers 

 to the Sheldrake {cf. " Newton's Dictionary," p. 814), while at Strang- 

 ford Lough " S:ale-duck," or more commonly " Scalers," is the folk-name 

 for the Merganser. I conclude that this confusion actually occurred 

 when the name migrated to England from Scotland, its birthplace in all 

 probability. So the Slieldrake is called " scameler." It is, however, 

 possible that the word came to be used more generally (perhaps especially 

 of ducks) just as "sea-gull" as used popularly includes a number of 

 different species. 



:\Iy belief is that in Shakespeare's time " scamel " or " scameler " was 

 a name for the Sheldrake used possibly in the loose manner of 

 many local names, and perhaps also used, even then, of the Merganser. 

 At any rate since it is likely that Shakespeare heard the name in England, 

 and since the Sheldrake nests in England, but the Merganser does not, 

 it is almost certain that if Shakespeare had any particular bird in mind it 

 was the Sheldrake. 



My reason for believing the word to have come from Scotland is that 

 the majority of the people where the word is used are of Scottish descent, 

 immigrants at the time of the Plantations. 



Perhaps " scamel " may yet be tracked to its lair in North Britain ! 



Belfast. Edward A. Armstrong. 



