206 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



designate the smaller species of Curlew found in 

 the British Islands, is a corruption of an older and 

 more significant word. Prof. Newton (" Diet. Birds," 

 p. 1036), on the authority of Prof. Skeat, has : " Whim- 

 brel, the bird that keeps on uttering a cry imitated 

 by whim, a name made known to Willughby (1678) 

 as being used at the mouth of the Tees." 



But long before Willughby's time, viz., in 1530, 

 the bird was known in the very county referred to 

 as the Whimpeyiiel (see the "Durham Household 

 Book," 1530-31, pp. 46, 129). To whimper, or 

 utter a querulous cry, is eminently expressive of this 

 bird's note, and if Willughby be responsible for the 

 name Whiinhrel, he must have been misled in the 

 spelling of it by the pronunciation of his informant. 

 The suggestion made by Mr. Furnivall in 1868 of 

 the existence of a French form, Whimhremi, so far 

 as I am aware, has not been verified, although the 

 name Brewe is to be found in Russell's " Boke of 

 Nurture" and in the "Boke of Kervynge" [carving], 

 printed in 1513 by Wynkyn de Worde. 



On the Sussex coast this bird is known as the 

 Titterel, an equally expressive name, from its titter- 

 ing cry, and in Somersetshire Checker and Checherel ; 

 in Cumberland, Half Curleiv, Curletv Knave, and 

 Curleiv Jack (synonymous terms, as at cards ; see 

 the "Household Books" of Lord William Howard 

 of Naworth Castle, 1612, p. 164) ; in Norfolk, Spowe, 

 from the Scandinavian spoi and spou (see the " House- 

 hold Books" of the L'Estranges of Hunstanton, 

 1520, and Stevenson, "Birds of Norfolk," ii. p. 202), 



