74 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 99 



SOME LOCAL NAMES OF BIRDS. 



BY W. L. m'aTEE. 



In 1911 the writer published ^ a Hst of local names of birds, 

 chiefly intended to supplement Gurdon Trumbull's most inter- 

 esting" compilaton - of vernacular names of game birds. The 

 present list has a similar object, since it deals largely with 

 water and shore birds, but like the former catalog it includes 

 unusual cognomens for a variety of other species. 



The principal sources of the informaton presented in the 

 following pages are field experiences of the writer on trips 

 for the United States Biological Survey, a manuscript catalog 

 by L. O. Pindar of birds names in use about Hickman, Ky., 

 and fugitive references to bird nicknames in Forest and Stream 

 and elsewhere. The names given in a brief but interesting list 

 by H. H. Brimley (see bibliography) are among those incor- 

 porated. Mr. Francis Harper has kindly contributed numer- 

 ous names in use at Beaufort, N. C, and on Long Island, 

 N. Y. The principal localities at which the writer made lists 

 of local names since the publication of his first paper on the 

 subject are Matinicus Id., Maine, Wallops and Revels Ids., 

 Virginia, and Willapa Flarbor, Washington. The Wallops Id. 

 material is supplemented by a manuscript list kindly prepared 

 by Dr. B. H. Warren. The present catalog of names is in- 

 dexed so that it may be used as a supplement to other glos- 

 saries. 



COLYMBIDAE. 



1. AecJiviopJiorus occidentalis. — Silver loon, silver diver, Wil- 

 lapa Harbor, Wash. 



2. Colymbus Jiolboelli. — Bobtail, Shitepoke, Wear hen (so called 

 because they perch on projecting parts of fish-wears), Matinicus 

 Id., Me.; sheldrake loon, Patchogue, L. I.; pinquin, pinquint, Wal- 

 lops Id., Va.; red-eyed devil, sinker, Willapa Harbor, Wash. 



3. Podilymhus podiceps. — Tad, Wallops Id., Va.;culotte, Marks- 

 ville, la. The latter word, the French term for breeches, is amus- 

 ingly appropriate for a bird whose feet only portrude beyond its 

 feathers. 



^Forest and Stream, 77, pp. 172-174 and 196-197. 

 = Names and Portraits of Birds, 1888. 



