ENGLISH NAMES OF AMERICAN BIRDS—TROTTER. Balad 
Catesby as “The purple jackdaw” (I, 12). Bartram calls it the 
“ Lesser purple jackdaw or crow blackbird” (the first notice I have 
found of this last common name). Wilson calls it the “ purple 
grackle,” from which source it has without doubt spread into the 
current vernacular of ornithology, though not into the speech of the 
people at large. 
The name “ parula” recently in vogue for the warblers of the 
genus Compsothlypis is clearly borrowed from the old Bonaparte 
genus Parula (diminutive of titmouse). The bird (C. americana) 
has appeared under various titles—“ the finch creeper ” of Catesby 
(I, 64), “the various-colored little finch creeper” of Bartram 
(Travels, 292), and the “blue yellow-backed warbler” of Wilson, 
Audubon, and later authors. 
In “ Kinglet” we have a word rendered into English from the 
generic name,Regulus (Cuvier), though its use is somewhat recent, 
“wren ” being the vernacular designation of the species of Regulus 
until a comparatively late period. Edwards (Gleanings, V, 95) 
refers to the species as “ Le Roitelet ” (also Buffon). 
“Tanager” is another derived word from the Linnean genus 
Tanagra, probably of Brazilian origin (Marcgrave, Hist. Rer. Nat. 
Bras., 214). 
Ill. NAMES SUGGESTED BY VOICE. 
In this group, and in the ones that follow, the vernacular names 
are more specific in their nature, indicative of some peculiar fea- 
ture or habit of a species. Bird voices have been embodied from 
the earliest times in various expressive syllables which have given 
rise to a variety of names. “Cuckoo” was one of these, and in 
like manner “wren,” “crow,” and other bird names of the Old 
World. The babble of our voluble chat, as we have seen, undoubt- 
edly led Catesby to ally the bird with a group of very different 
species. In America the colonists soon found names by which to 
designate a number of birds from peculiarities in their vocal per- 
formances. Latham speaks of the “ Phcebe-bird ” (Sayornis fuscus) , 
unquestionably given him by some trans-Atlantic correspondent. Our 
name “pewee” is given “pewit” by Bartram. Wilson named the 
“wood pewee” (Contopus virens) from its voice and its habitat. 
The older writers give “rice bird” as the chief caption of Doli- 
chonyx oxyzivorus (Catesby, I, 14) and Bartram calls the male 
“the pied rice bird.” Wilson calls it “rice bird,” but mentions 
its other names, “boblink” and “reed bird.” Nuttall, as a good 
New Englander, gives “bob-o-link” as its principal name, and 
Barton, in his Fragments, has “ bob-lincoln.” I find this last title 
also in a sketch of the English writer William Hazlitt (1785). These . 
