|Cn.u>. V. jg 



I'AH.V. 11. I 



Vernacular u. Jn Key 20 below (cols. 2 and 3) will he found the 



(Key 20) Hindustani and Hindi names of the [-nited (old North- 

 West) Province aiid Sindh as given by Hume and Marshall 

 in the " Game Birds." The transliteration and spelling 

 is reproduced unaltered. It is by no means above reproach, 

 even according to ancient pre-Hunterian princijiles, for 

 even the same word is spelt in different ways, etc., etc. 

 Possibly this does not matter, since few of the words, 

 except the simplest, will be found in any Dictionary. 

 A nodding acquaintance with tlie local names is worth 

 cultivation, since the sportsman who knows them will at 

 once be on better terms with his coolies and ahikario.. 

 There are now many excellent glossaries of local dialects, 

 to which reference may be made. The subject is not one 

 to which the standard books have paid much attention. 



Where the vernacular names convey anything to the 

 European with a smattering of the vernaculars, they will 

 be found mostly to be based on some simple feature of 

 colouring. Thus we have the " Blue Head " (Mallard) 

 and the " Red-Head " (Red-crested Pocliard and the 

 Pochard), the *' Little Red Head" (Wigeon), the "Red 

 Bill" (another name for the Red-crested Pochard) and the 

 " Pied Duck " (Tufted Duck). The Sindhi names for the Red- 

 crested and ordinary Pochard mean also " the Red Duck." 

 But vernacular nomenclature is very primitive. We have 

 already seen that no less than three birds are hardly dis- 

 tinguished at all by name, and the Pochard and the White- 

 eye, to judge by Hume's recorded names, are su})posed to 

 be male and female of the same species. Three birds 

 • again, the Common Teal, the W^igeon and the Gargauey, 



which bear little enough resemblance to one another except 

 in size, are all called Pa tar i. It is a mistake, though, to 

 suppose that the local product does not appreciate a 

 picture or remember a name, if anyone, will take the 

 trouble to explain them to him. It was the surprise of 

 the writer's life to find an unlikely-looking shikari on a 

 well-known J hit in the Gurdaspur District of tlie Panjab 

 whom you could not puzzle in regard to the English titles 

 of the common Duck. Asked how he had come by his 

 knowledge, the man replied that an European sportsman 

 had once jnade a stay of several days at the place : he had 

 a book with coloured pictures in it (how the shade of 

 Hume must have rejoiced !), which, on being asked, he 

 had shown to the shiknri, repeating the Englisli names 

 till they were understood. 



Col. 4 of Key 20 gives the current names in Western 

 Panjabi. Tlie resemblance to Hume's Sindhi will be 

 apparent. There is obviously much confusion in the 

 popular mind between the last four species. 



