232 Seton, Popular Bird Names. [April 



the language was unconquerable, and at last it is admitted by the 

 defeated scientists that the trivial names (as they called them) 

 of these birds are really Bobolink, Sapsucker, Whippoorwill, 

 Nighthawk, Dickcissel, Killdeer, Flicker, Bobwhite, Mockingbird, 

 Thrasher and Chickadee; and with that admission public interest 

 in these particular birds takes on a great and enduring growth. 



A similar struggle is now going on between the Black-billed 

 Cuckoo vs. Rain Crow, Snowflake vs. Snow Bird, Passenger Pigeon 

 vs. Wild Pigeon, Goldfinch vs. Wild Canary, Junco vs. Slaty 

 Snowbird or Tip, Cardinal vs. Redbird, Sand Martin vs. Bank 

 Swallow, Spotted Sandpiper vs. Tip-up or Peetweet, Barred Owl 

 vs. Hoot Owl, Virginia Horned Owl vs. Cat Owl, Acadian Owl vs. 

 Saw-whet, Carolina Rail vs. Sora, Phalarope vs. Sea Goose, Vulture 

 vs. Turkey-Buzzard, Pectoral Sandpiper vs. Jack Snipe, Gallinule 

 vs. Mud Hen, Osprey vs. Fish Hawk, Peregrine Falcon vs. Duck 

 Hawk, American Kestrel vs. Sparrowhawk. 



A few names such as Bluebird, Crossbill, Chat, Wagtail, Sand- 

 piper, etc., have long been such a success that one knows instinc- 

 tively that they did not originate with the scientists. 



Such clumsy names as White-throated Sparrow, Black-and- 

 White Warbler, Red-shouldered Hawk, are, of course, not names 

 at all, but cumbrous descriptions and doomed to failure, while 

 absurd pedantries like Pileolated Warbler, Protonotary Warbler, 

 Plumbeous Gnatcatcher, are worthy of the afore-mentioned 

 pedants of the Jacobean classical epoch. 



Names like Blackburnian Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Clay- 

 colored Sparrow, Townsend's Solitaire, are utterly impossible. 

 They are clumsy, meaningless, un-English and detrimental. I 

 was showing the first of these birds to a group of lively children and 

 said it was called Blackburnian Warbler. A bright boy, speaking 

 wiser than he knew, said, " If it was 'Flaming Warbler' I'd remem- 

 ber it." "Nashville Warbler" is, of course, utterly misleading. 

 We are told that the "Nashville" is a mere fortuitous word added 

 for distinction. Then I say drop it as soon as possible, since it 

 is no more a Nashville Warbler than it is a Virginia or Minnesota 

 Warbler; while the word "Warbler" itself is open to grave sus- 

 picion. I wonder the clumsiness of "Clay-colored Sparrow" 

 has not put it out long ago. I suppose the reason is it never was in. 



