7 38 POPINJA Y—PO WDER-DO WNS 



possibly a mispronunciation of the Dutch Lepelaar, which means 

 the same bird. 



POPINJAY, a word of respectable antiquity since it is used 

 in some manuscript copies of Chaucer (C'anterb. Tales, 13,299\ 

 while the French Papegai, written " Papejay," is used in others. 

 Prof. Skeat, whose remarks {Etymol. Did. p. 456) deserve all 

 attention, concludes " that F. papegai, a talking jay, was modified 

 from the older 0. F. papegau, a talking cock," akin to the Italian 

 PajMgallo— the first half of all these words being cognate with 

 " babble." Originally the name signified Parrot, but since most 

 of the best-known Parrots are green, it has in this country been 

 transferred to the Green Woodpecker. It was also the wooden 

 figure of a bird set up as a mark to be shot at. The Arabic 

 babaghd (a Parrot), from which some derive Papagau and other 

 forms, seems itself to be a corruption of the Spanish Papagayo. 



PORT-EGMONT HEN, the Southern Great Skua, so called 

 by seamen in the last century from its familiarity about the place 

 of that name in the Falkland Islands (cf. Latham, Gen. Synops. 

 iii. p. 386). 



POST -BIRD, a local name of the Spotted Flycatcher, 

 Miiscicapa grisola, from its habit of sitting on posts when looking 

 out for prey (see p. 274). 



POTOO, the Creole name for one of the Nightjars, Nydihius 

 jamaicensis (Gosse, B. Jamaica, p. 41). 



POWDER-DOWNS are so called from the powder produced 

 by the continuous disintegration of the numerous brush-like barbs 

 and barbules, into which the barrel is constantly splitting as it 

 grows without forming a principal shaft. In size, form and 

 situation they vary much. In the Psittaci they are very short 

 tufts, the barrel hardly projecting from the skin, Avhile in Botaurus 

 the barrel is nearly half an inch long, and bears a short tuft of 

 very fine filaments. In Podargus they attain their extreme size 

 and complexity, being about two inches long. In some cases 

 Powder-downs occur over the greater part of the body, among the 

 contour-feathers as well as on the featherless spaces, in others they 

 grow in more or less distinct tracts or in compact patches. The 

 appearance of these peculiar organs, scattered as it were through- 

 out various groups — Tinamous, Herons, Diurnal Birds-of-Prey, 

 Parrots and in a few members of other groups — seems to be 

 rather an illustration of isomorphism than an indication of affinity. 

 Hitherto they have been found to exist as follows : — 



Crypturi — interspersed among the contour-feathers of the large 

 dorsal tract. 



