White.— A Philological Study. 139 



the birch (tree) cock, the black cock ; birk-lienne, said to be 

 the red-grouse, but must be the grey-hen, the female of the 

 birds we name black-game ; kurre, a turkey-hen ; kurr-hahn, a 

 turkey-cock. It may be of interest to make a guess how the 

 English came to use the word turkey to designate this bird. I 

 would say that the red head and curiously elongated caruncu- 

 lar tassel, also of scarlet hue, gave the fancied resemblance to 

 a Turk and his scarlet fez, or cap. This bird, originating from 

 North America, has no other connection with the Turk, except 

 as supposing the use of the diminutive form Turk-ie, or little 

 Turk. We also have ivasser-huhn, the moor-fowl, and wasser- 

 lienne, the water-hen. 



Following the word cock into the French language, we have 

 coq, the male Gallus domesticus ; coq-d'Inde, cock of India 

 (i.e., American Indians), a turkey-cock ; coq-de-bruyere, cock 

 of the heather, the grouse ; coq-a-queue-fourchue, the cock with 

 the forked or branching tail, which is very descriptive of 

 the black-cock, whose tail-feathers bend outward to either 

 side somewhat in the form of two J's placed back to back : 

 thus, ")p. The woodcock is coq-des-bois, or cock of the 

 woods, and coq-de-combat is a game-cock, which in German is 

 kamph-hahn. This latter is also the name of a small bird,, 

 the ruff, which is allied to the plover, and is sometimes kept in 

 captivity on account of its great pugnacity towards others of 

 its kind. The female, being without the neck-ruff, we name 

 reeve. Kamph means "combat" or "conflict," as kamph- 

 hahn, battle-cock. 



The French word coquerico means cock-a-doodle-do, and 

 is on the same lines as coquette, a flirt ; coqueliner, to crow, to 

 run after the girls. In Sanskrit kukkuta is a cock, probably so 

 called from the call of the bird. As the bird carries his voice 

 to all countries, we may expect to find in most cases it is 

 named therefrom, as, for instance, Malay kukuk, the crowing 

 of cocks ; kakak, the cackling of hens. In French the female 

 bird is named poule and poule d'Inde, hen of India (North 

 American Indians), the hen turkey. You will remember that 

 the early voyagers, on reaching the coast of America, supposed 

 they had reached India, hence the name of West Indies. The 

 natives of America were thus misnamed Indians, and the term 

 became so much in use that Captain Cook and others wrote of 

 the aborigines of the islands of the Pacific Ocean as Indians, 

 even the Maori of New Zealand being so named. Poule d'eau 

 is the moor-hen, and is also termed more correctly water-hen. 

 Poule would seem allied to Latin pull-us, young animal or 

 foal ; English derivatives, pullet, a young hen ; poultry, and 

 others. 



Gochon d'Inde, the pig of India, is the guinea-pig, and is a 

 native of South America. The same derivative is disguised in 



