512 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
are the earliest references I can find to this song name of the bird 
which appears to have been early in use throughout New York and 
New England. 
Among the current specific appelations of certain sparrows some 
recent changes are noteworthy. 
The “yellow winged sparrow” of Wilson is now the “ grass- 
hopper sparrow,” the first allusion to its grasshopper-like notes 
being, as far as I can find, in Coues’s Birds of the Northwest (p. 133). 
We owe the attractive name of “vesper sparrow ” to John Burroughs 
(Wake Robin), which has superseded the older “grass finch” of 
Pennant and Gmelin and the “ bay-winged finch” of Wilson. The 
“ chipping sparrow ” is through Wilson from the earlier “ little house 
sparrow or chipping bird” of Bartram. “Song sparrow ” unques- 
tionably originated through Wilson, as also the specific title melodia. 
Catesby (I, 34) figures and describes “the towhe-bird” (Pipilo 
erythrophthalmus). Wilson speaks of its name in Pennsylvania as 
-“chewink.” “Towhee” is a later form of the word by adding an 
additional “e.” “Swamp robin” and (in Virginia) “ bulfinch ” are 
other names mentioned by Wilson. 
“ Pipit ” is an old English name applied to the titlarks (Anthus) 
and is derived through “ peep ” from “ pipe,” imitative of the bird’s 
note. 
Catesby calls the mockingbird (Afimus polyglottos) “The mock 
bird,” though Bartram gives it its modern form. “ Catbird ” appears 
as such in Catesby (I, 66) and Bartram adds “ chicken bird” as a 
synonym (Travels, 290). ‘“ Chickadee” as a general imitative ver- 
nacular name for the species of Parws I find first in Audubon. The 
name “ veery,” given to the tawny thrush (Z’urdus fuscescens) in imi- 
tation of its note, is first used as a synonym by Nuttall. 
“Warbler,” as a general term for small song birds of the Old 
World family Sylviide, has come down from a word in several of 
the old European tongues (Old French, Old High German, Middle 
English—Werbler, Werbelen) , meaning to whirl, run around, warble, 
as a bird (Skeat). - In its special application to the species of Sylvia, 
which we owe to Pennant (1773), it included the American warblers 
(Mniotiltidee) which were later separated as a distinct family (Sylvi-, 
colide) under the title of “wood warblers.” ‘“ Wood warbler,” how- 
ever, has not prevailed, and “warbler” continues to be the current 
vernacular for the various species of this characteristic American 
family, though, as we are well aware, the name belies the insect-like 
notes, drawling monotones, lispings, and wheezing performances of 
the majority of the species. A few do really warble in the accepted 
sense of the term (Geothlypis), but most speak in a tongue peculiarly 
their own. 
