[ganong] identity OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 235 



Poursille. — Name used by' Denys for the common Porpoise, or Herring Hog, 

 and still used by the Canadian French (//(/r Clapin, Dictionnaire) and by 

 the Acadians (flde A. C. Smith, pronounced pourcie.) It is to this species 

 that Lescarbot appears to apply the name Souffleur. 



Pousse-pieds. — French name for Barnacles, of the genus Anatifera. Used by 

 Champlain in 1611. 



Prunier.— French name for Plum Tree, applied to its nearest representative 

 in Eastern Canada, the Wild Yellow or Red Plum. Mentioned by 

 Champlain (who uses also Prunes), by Lescarbot and others. This 

 species is still called Prunier Sauvage by the French Canadians, ac- 

 cording to l'Abbé Provancher. 



Prusse, or Pruche.— French name for the European Spruce, (derived from 

 the country Prusse, that is Prussia), and extended to the Spruce of 

 America. Used first by Cartier, in 1534, as pruche (in connection with 

 making masts), then by Champlain, in 1604, and by Denys, who makes 

 it plain that the name did not apply in the comprehensive sense of 

 our English word Spruce, but to the large Timber spruce, viz., the 

 Red Spruce, including probably also the White Spruce. The other 

 Spruces and the Firs Denys included under Sapins. But, according to 

 l'Abbé Provancher, the Canadian French now apply pruche to the Hem- 

 lock, which is certainly different from the early usage. 



Pye de Mer. — French name, meaning Sea-Pie, for the European Oyster- 

 catcher, applied 'o an Acadian sea-bird by Champlain in 1604. The 

 American Oyster-catcher hardly occurs, except rarely and accidentally, 

 in Acadia, and Champlain no doubt observed its near relative, the 

 common Turnstone, which Denys mentioned under the name Tourne- 

 vire. P-jiC is applied by the Acadians to the Moose-bird ifldc A. C. 

 Smith), and it was doubtless to this that Le Clercq applied the name 

 in 1691. 



Quickbeame. — Mentioned among trees of Cape Breton by Strong in 1593. It 

 is an old English name for the Service tree, or Mountain Ash. 



Quincajou, or Kinkajou. — Native name of a South American mammal of 

 cat-like habit, and possessing a very long prehensile tail, transferred 

 by confusion of the somewhat similar names to the Carcajou, of Can- 

 ada, which is the Wolverene or Glutton. The name Caracjou is now 

 French, but derived from the Montagnais dialect. Denys was the first, 

 so far as I can find, to confuse the two animals, and he not only mixes 

 their names, but he gives to the Wolverene, which he otherwise de- 

 scribes correctly, the long prehensile tail of the Kincajou. He was 

 followed in this error by many others, including Charlevoix, down al- 

 most to our times, for Cooney, in 1832, in his History of Northern New 

 Brunswick and Gaspé, (page 232) gives the Carcajou the long prehen- 

 sile tail. Le Clercq speaks of the quinquajou, but Dieréville calls it 

 Carcajou. 



Racine qui teinte en couleur cramoysie, with which the Indians painted their 



faces, mentioned by Champlain. This was no doul)t a Galium, the same 

 plant of which Denys, and much later the Swedish traveller Kalm, 

 speak in this connection. See Slafter, Champlain, 111,14. 



