282 
THE MEANING OF ENGLISH BIRD-NAMES. 
By H. T. Wuarton, M.A., F.Z.S. 
So much has been written about the meaning ot the English names of flowers, 
that it is strange how those of our birds have been neglected. Much information 
can be got, scattered about in general ornithological literature, or found in various 
dictionaries, but it does not seem that anyone has taken up the subject in its 
entirety. 
Of the names of British birds, as they appear in the ordinary standard books, 
I find there are about one hundred and sixty; of these there are certainly not 
much more than a dozen of which some account cannot be given. Of course, if 
all the known provincial names were also taken—as is, I believe, about to be done 
for the English Dialect Society—this number would probably be increased tenfold, 
and the difficulties might increase with the numbers. 
At present I do not wish to rival the dictionary-maker, but merely to show the 
meaning—more often poetical, perhaps, than in the case of flowers—of the names 
we commonly apply to British birds; I shall take no account of those of which no 
satisfactory explanation can be found. 
The names of birds seem to have originated in three different ways; some may 
be called onomatopeeic, or imitative, expressing the characteristic notes which the 
birds emit; others are taken from peculiarities of colouring or appearance; and 
the largest class is of those names which refer to peculiar habits, and these seem to 
be the oldest, for they are often so modified from their original form that it is diffi- 
cult to find out their hidden meaning. But there are others which are quaintly 
named from some human attribute or sympathy, or bear some mythological refer- 
ence; one bird, the Pheasant, is named after the place whence it seems to have 
been first brought—from the river Phasis, in Colchis, a province of Asia, east of 
the Black Sea, now known as Mingrelia. There is yet another category, which in- 
cludes names we can trace directly to Latin or Greek, although often we can go 
no further. 
To begin with those which are imitative, though not all strictly onomatopeic, 
we have some which so plainly indicate the note they describe, that they require 
no explanation; these are, to take them in alphabetical order, Chat, such as 
Woodchat, Whinchat, Stonechat, &c.; Chiffchaff, Crake, Cuckoo, Curlew, 
Kittiwake, Peewit (in French, Dix-huwit), Pipit, Skua, and Twite. There can be 
no question about them for one who knows them in their natural haunts. But it 
is not so obvious that Bittern comes from the bird’s drumming note, or ‘‘ booming,” 
though there is little doubt about the fact. The names Chough, Crow, Raven, 
and Rook, all seem to denote the hoarse cries emitted by the Corvine birds. Cirl 
Bunting has long concealed its origin, but it seems clear that it comes to us from 
the Italian name zirolo, and is connected with zirlare, to cry zi-2t. Egret and 
Heron, for all their dissimilarity, are really the same words; both come from 
