GANONG] IDENTITY OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 229 



Osprey. — See Vaultour. 



Ours. — French word for the Bear, generically, transferred naturally to the 

 American species, as Ours or Hours. Mentioned by all writers from 

 Cartier, in 1534, onward. There is a picture, but without name, on 

 Champlain's map of 1612. 



Ours-marins. — Mentioned in a list by Champlain in 1603, and supposed by 

 Otis to refer to a Seal. But In his narrative of 1608 Champlain repeats 

 this list and writes Ours, Loups marins, showing that ours-marins is 

 simply a misprint due to accidental dropping of a word. 



Oursin, or Ourcin. — French name for the European Sea-urchin, extended to 

 the common American species. Used by Champlain in 1604, (later as 

 Jioursains) then by Lescarbot in connections leaving no question as to 

 its identity. Lescarbot also calls it Cliatagne de Mer, meaning Sea- 

 Chestnut, which is another French name for the Sea-urchin, but which 

 Thwaites' Jesuit Relations (I, 69) wrongly and strangely (for it occurs 

 in a list of Shell-fish) translates Porpoises. 



Outarde. — The Wild Goose, or Canada Goose. First used, in the form oul- 

 tarde, by Cartier in 1535, then by Champlain in 1603, and thereafter 

 by many writers. The identity of this bird is placed beyond question 

 by the descriptions of it given by Lescarbot, and especially by Denys, 

 while this evidence is crowned by the fact that both the Canadian 

 French (flde C. E. Dionne), and the Acadians (fide A. C. Smith) thus 

 use the name to this day. Consequently Slafter, and after him Baxter, 

 are in error in identifying it with the Brant. The word is an old 

 French name for the Bustard, an edible European bird which does not 

 occur in America, and the early French voyagers or fishermen simply 

 followed a very common custom when they transferred the name of 

 the familiar old-world bird to the one in the new world which most 

 nearly took its place in their estimation. The resemblance seems to 

 have struck the English also, for Haie in 1583 speaks of "foule as 

 bigge as Bustards, yet not the same." 



Oxen and Kine. — See Fauquet- 



Oye, Oyee, or Oie. — French name for Goose, generically. Used by Cartier, 

 in 1535, as oyes sauvages, Ulanclies et grises, and by many others later. 

 There would seem to be no doubt that these white and gray geese 

 were the Snow Geese, formerly abundant and still occurring rarely 

 in this region. The name did not, to most writers at least, include 

 the Outarde, or Canada Goose, which from Cartier onward is mentioned 

 always by its own distinctive name. Lescarbot's mention of gray 

 geese in spring and white geese in autumn refers, without doubt, to 

 the fact that the young of the Snow Geese are gray. The petites oyes 

 of Champlain (1632) were probably Brant. According to C. E. Dionne, 

 the Greater Snow Goose is the oie sauvage of the French Canadians. 



Oyster. — The Oyster is mentioned as occurring in Newfoundland bj'' Park- 

 hurst in 1578, and by Haie in 1583. But as there is not the least other 

 evidence of its occurrence there within historic times, and every prob- 



