738 POPIN/JA Y—POWDER-DOWNS 
possibly a mispronunciation of the Dutch Lepelaar, which means 
the same bird. 
POPINJAY, a word of respectable antiquity since it is used 
in some manuscript copies of Chaucer (Canterb. Tales, 13,299), 
while the French Papegai, written ‘“ Papejay,” is used in others. 
Prof. Skeat, whose remarks (Htymol. Dict. p. 456) deserve all 
attention, concludes “that F. papegai, a talking jay, was modified 
from the older O. F. papegau, a talking cock,” akin to the Italian 
Papagallo—the first half of all these words being cognate with 
“babble.” Originally the name signified PARROT, but since most 
of the best-known Parrots are green, it has in this country been 
transferred to the Green WOODPECKER. It was also the wooden 
figure of a bird set up as a mark to be shot at. The Arabic 
babaghé (a Parrot), from which some derive Papagaw and other 
forms, seems itself to be a corruption of the Spanish Papagayo. 
PORT-EGMONT HEN, the Southern Great Skua, so called 
by seamen in the last century from its familiarity about the place 
of that name in the Falkland Islands (cf. Latham, Gen. Synops. 
iii. p. 386), 
POST-BIRD, a local name of the Spotted FLYCATCHER, 
Muscicapa grisola, from its habit of sitting on posts when looking 
out for prey (see p. 274). 
POTOO, the Creole name for one of the NicutTsArs, Nyctibius 
jamaicensis (Gosse, B. Jamaica, p. 41). 
POWDER-DOWNS are so called from the powder produced 
by the continuous disintegration of the numerous brush-like barbs 
and barbules, into which the barrel is constantly splitting as it 
grows without forming a principal shaft. In size, form and 
situation they vary much. In the Psittact they are very short 
tufts, the barrel hardly projecting from the skin, while in Botawrus 
the barrel is nearly half an inch long, and bears a short tuft of 
very fine filaments. In Podargus they attain their extreme size 
and complexity, being about two inches long. In some cases 
Powder-downs occur over the greater part of the body, among the 
contour-feathers as well as on the featherless spaces, in others they 
grow in more or less distinct tracts or in compact patches. The 
appearance of these peculiar organs, scattered as it were through- 
out various groups—Tinamous, Herons, Diurnal Birds-of-Prey, 
Parrots and in a few members of other groups—seems to be 
rather an illustration of isomorphism than an indication of affinity. 
Hitherto they have been found to exist as follows : 
Crypturi—interspersed among the contour-feathers of the large 
dorsal tract. 
