214 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Daim, or Dain. — French name of the Fallow Deer of Europe, transferred by 

 the early voyagers, as it seems, to its nearest American representative, 

 the Virginia Deer. Cartier first mentions Dains and Cerfs on the 

 Saint Lawrence in 1535, and there is every probability, though no proof, 

 that the latter was the Wapiti and the former the Virginia Deer. 

 Champlain used it in a sense consistent with this in 1603 and later. 

 Thus, in 1632, he gives eslans (moose), cerfs (wapiti), dains and cari- 

 bou, which is perfectly consistent with this identification. Moreover, 

 the Virginia Deer is called le Dain fauve â queue blanche to this day by 

 the Canadian French, according to Mr. Thompson Seton. 



Dauphin. — French name for the Dolphin, a large Porpoise which ranges the 

 coasts of both Europe and America. Used by Lescarbot and by Denys. 

 Denys remarks that he believes Dauphin to be another name for the 

 Sturgeon, and here he may possibly have had the fish and not the 

 cetacean in mind. This statement is based probably upon an errone- 

 ous association of ideas, for he describes a crown and a fleur-de-lis 

 among the markings of the Sti-rgeon, which suggests apparently an 

 idea of royalty and a royal name for the fish. It is pictured, appar- 

 ently, by Champlain on his map of Saint Croix Island, and by Les- 

 carbot at Port Royal, but in both cases without name. 



Deer. — The name applied by the English to the Caribou of Newfoundland, 

 .and still in use to this day. Referred to without name by Park- 

 hurst in 1578; Haie, in 1583, speaks of "Red deare, buffles or a beast, 

 as it seemeth by the tract and foote very large in maner of an Oxe;" 

 by which two names he must refer to the same animal, since the Tied 

 Deer has never existed in Newfoundland. Wyet, in 1594, speaks of 

 Deere, and others use the name from that time onward, down to this 

 day, when it is universally called Deer. It is called Reine-deere in 

 the Rosier Relation of 1605. 



Dewberries. — Mentioned by Parkhurst in 1578, and no doubt the berry still 

 so called by the English in Eastern Canada. 



Dogfish. — See Chien de Mer. 



Duc. — French name for the Horned Owl. Used by Lescarbot and by Cham- 

 plain (1632), and applied to the Great Horned Owl, as implied by 

 the fact that the Canadian French thvis use the name to this day. 

 (fide C. E. Dionne). 



Ecureuil. — French name of the European squirrels, without distinction of 

 species, transferred, naturally, to the American forms. Used first by 

 Cartier, in 1535, in the form escwetix, and by all other writers later. 

 Champlain, in 1632, spoke of escurienx rollaiifi. or flying- squirrels, and 

 others: Le Jeune described the flying squirrel, while Denys clearly 

 described the three eastern species, the red squirrel, the ground squirrel, 

 which he says the French called Suisse, and the flying squirrel. 



