of some Birds' Names. 453 



in this matter, when continental authors of the " heroic age '' 

 of ornithology", such as Gesner and Aldrovandi, were generally 

 content with '^ boscas." That the latter is the correct form 

 there can be no doubt. Boo-zca? is a small kind of Duck in 

 Aristotle (Hist. An. viii. 3, 15); l3aaKd<; means the same in 

 Aristophanes (Av. 885) ; <f)a(rKd<i, which seems a cognate word 

 of nearly similar application, occurs in Athenseus (ix. 52). 

 By no rules of consonantal interchange could there be a sub- 

 stitution of X ^^^ '^ ') nothing but a misprint can account for 

 the introduction of the h. The coexistence of '' tench ^' with 

 tinea, and " perch " with irepKrj, afford no parallel instance. 

 On no ground but that of the necessity of following Linnaeus 

 so blindly as even to perpetuate his errors, can any one 

 henceforth write the specific name of the Mallard otherwise 

 than Anas boscas. It is, no doubt, a little matter ; but any 

 one who has vainly tried to get at the history of the word 

 by hunting for fioc^d^ in any lexicon will be grateful for 

 the correction. 



From his variable spelling of the generic name of the Wry- 

 neck it is certain that Linnaeus held no very definite opinion 

 on the matter. The '•' Yunx" of the Syst. Nat. 1766 was 

 the " Jynx" of earlier editions and of the ' Fauna Suecica/ 

 Yet it is perfectly clear that Aristotle wrote lv<y^, and that 

 the word was always a dissyllable. Witness Theocritus's 

 constantly recurring hexameter (Id. ii. 17, 22, 27, &c.) : — 

 " Lvy^, eXxe rv rrjvov ifiov ttotI Boofxa tov dvSpa." 



The name comes from the bird^s cry sounding like a repe- 

 tition of Iv or lov, an interjection used to denote the loud shout 

 of woe ; whence the verb lv^(o = l cry aloud. By the Strick- 

 landian code, § 14, 'ivy^ becomes in Latin iynx : let the name 

 then be so written, not neglecting the notes of diaeresis, and 

 there can be no doubt on the subject for the future. 



There is one word more which stands in some need of 

 alteration. Linnaeus called the Woodcock Scolopax Rusti- 

 cola (S. N. 12th edit. i. p. 243). I cannot help thinking he 

 meant rusticula, a well-known diminutive of rusticus, like 

 gallinula from gallina. Had he meant a " husbandman," on 

 the analogy of agricola, he must have written ruricola . Gloger 

 seems to have been the first to notice this discrepancy, thus 



^RR. IV. VOL. III. 2l 



