214 Cuckoo's Eggs hatched by a 
following particulars, which are well au- 
thenticated by a friend of mine, ene I 
veracity no doubt need be entertained, 
Living at a farm-house, a considerable 
distance from any village, he trequently 
heard the note of a cuckoo that sat in 
the hedge near his barn-door. Curiosity 
induced him to examine the spot, and in 
a short time he found a hedge-sparrow’s 
nest, that appeared quite finished though 
empty. The next morning he found in 
iu a large egg, which he knew was not the 
bird’s that formed the nest. The three 
succeeding mornings he also visited the 
place, and found each day a small blue 
egg deposited. Soon after the sparrow 
sat, and after the usual time of incuba- 
tion, the large bird and the three small 
ones appeared, ahd all fed by the hedye- 
sparrow. Ina few days after he went as 
usual, and found the cuckoo very busily 
employed in killing the small birds, but 
at his appearance instantly took flight. 
However, determined to gratify his curio- 
sity, he went to the place and found the 
young sparrows destroyed, one of them 
Jying on the side ofthe nest, and the other 
two on the ground. About a weekvatter 
he procured a large wicker cage and se- 
cured the young cuckoo, placing itin the 
same hedge. It, is constantly attended 
by the sparrow,-and fed by her, though 
it will eat bread or eggs given by any of 
the family. Itis at this time a fine bird 
in full plumage, and appears at its full 
owth. 
‘ Hinkley, Your's, &c. 
Aug. 26, 1808. AConstanr Reaper. 
——__— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE appellation Watling-street, Mr. 
T Whitaker observes in his [istory of 
Manchester, “ has baffled the powers of 
etymology;” and the names which fol- 
low have also eluded the researches of 
etymologists. 
The word acha, written ake, ak, and 
ac; as in Achamannum, now Bath, in the 
Akemann strect, &c. is Gaelic fora 
mound, bank, border, ridge, &c.. The 
letters b, f, and m, were anciently written 
for each other. Fonn is Gaelic for land,’ 
which, as f was often pronounced as v, 
became vonn, and vonn as m with a point 
(im‘) was the Gaelic 2, became monn ; and 
this was written mon, man, and men: 
thus men meant land in the Menapii or 
Menavii,* of the Netherlands : mon and 
** Men. av, means'the sea land, or land re- 
claimed from the ocean, or bordering on water, 
It must be observed: that a Gaelic 
word for land was often: their term for 
road or way. hus cosan is a foot path 
or way, in which cos is foot, and an a va- 
ration of en, land. | Ake in Akeman, 
means as beforementioned, the bank or 
ridge, and mann the road or way.—Again, 
arm, in Armin-street, implies in the Gae- 
lic, army ; and in, land, which is also the 
road or way. 
Settlements. were originally named 
from their situations, and long before 
towns were built. On the banks of the 
river formerly called the Ure, or Euor, 
(but now at the place here referred to, 
the Ouse) was Euor-ac, changed to Evor- 
ac, and Eber-ac :—a name which meant 
the Euor-norver settlement. The Ro- 
mans, to prevent the junction and clash- 
ing of vowels, often used b for wu; and 
hence their name Eborac in Eboracum. 
In like manner as Lasc,water, is chang= 
ed to Ose, or Osk, in the Oskol ; or to Ox, 
which the Saxons wrote for Osc, in Ox- 
ford ; so Ach, or Ac, border, is changed to 
Oc in various names. Thus Berr-oc, 
which the Saxons rightly wrote in Ber- 
roc-Scyre, is derived from Ber, Bir, or 
Biur, water, and Oc, border or territory ; 
and Biur-oc, to avoid a like junction of 
vowels, was by the Romans written Bi- 
broc ; andthe people of the territory (on 
both sides of the Thames, according to 
Lysons’s Britannia) were named from 
their situation, the Bibroci, or the Water- 
borderers. 
From not attending to the aboriginal 
mode of naming places, and explaining 
their appellations, our books of ancient 
history, and of local description, are inter- 
mixed with such ludicrous conceits, and 
misapplied remarks, that corrections une 
known to their writers are every where 
necessary to obtain truth. Quotations 
without number might be given to evince 
the reality of this, from authors who have 
+ The ain this word is a contraction of 
au, little; thus the Avebeg, or little water, 
is named also the Mull-a. 
}{ This word implies the great land—or 
being an adgment, or variation of er, great. 
traced 
—_—" 
— 
