EXCURSUS ON THE NAMES OF SHRIKES 541 



term. He rather makes it out to be a kind of Thrush, and cites 

 the opinion of William Turner, to the effect that it was the bird 

 called by the English the Fii^ldfare. He treats of the European 

 Shrikes in another part of his work, under a name of bis own. 

 The name " Lanius", which means a butcher or executioner, 

 was excellently well chosen by Gesner to designate these 

 sanguinary birds, which had at that early day already made 

 their reputation for rapacity. That this was the first use of 

 the term in such connection, for birds which Gesner could not 

 identify with those described by any previous author, appears 

 from the subjoined quotation.* Gesner distinguishes two 

 European species, giving a figure of each, one of his notices 

 being "de Laniis, et primvm de cinereo"; the other "dealio 

 Laniorvm genere maiore". Of his Lanius cineretis, which is 

 cited by Linnaeus as one of the bases of his L. excuhitor^ 

 Gesner says that it was called in German ThorntrS,er or Thorn- 

 kresser, "quasi torquispinum vel spinilanium ", showing that 

 in his time one of the marked habits of the Shrike was already 

 a matter of common report. He also mentions that the bird 

 was called in some places Nuntoder or Niinmorder, that is to 

 say, Nine-killer, from the vulgar belief that this was exactly 

 the number of birds which the Shrike was wont to destroy 

 daily. This curious tradition survives to the present day, as 

 witness the name "Nine-killer", still sometimes heard; and it 

 also gave rise to Boie's generic name Enneoctonus. Gesner is 

 less happy in his attempt to give the English equivalent of his 

 bird's name, which he renders ashirJce anymurder {sic in the 

 copy before me ; the fact being, that the Shrike does not shirk 

 any murder it can commit! This author very often mistook 

 our indefinite article for a part of the word succeeding it, and 

 the printer may be answerable for the rest of the blunder). In 

 another place, however, we find the word " Shrike " under the 

 quasi-Latin form of schricum. The derivation of this English 

 word is from shriek, one of a set of words, like screak, squeak, 

 screech, and numberless others, in different languages and 

 under various forms, which signify shrill kinds of outcry. The 

 Anglo-Saxon name of the bird was Scric, and in the Danish 



* " Lanivm cinereum nostrum, alij aliter Latine Grseceve nominari jjosse 

 coniecernnt, ego cum nulli veterum descriptioni satis earn accedereviderera, 

 nouo nomine lanium appellaro malui : quod in alias aues uou solum so 

 minores, sed niaiores etiam aliquas lauiando saeuire Koleat." (Quoted from 

 the ed. of 1617, which may not be literally true to the orig. ed. 1555.) 



