40 DoRAN, Vernacular Names of Birds. ["tan^ 



"That abnormal association of words generally indicates unifi- 

 cation of sense, and hence compounding in form." 



In accordance with X\\\s principle I have formulated the following 



Rules for Compotmding Vernacular Names of Biyds. 



Write as a compound 7(.iord : — 



1. A general name, used with any other name prefixed for specification 

 and denoting food or prev (cherry-bird, sparrow-hawk); 



2. A general name used with any other name prefixed for specification 

 denoting, — 



a. similarity (quail-dove) ; 



b. habit (butcher-bird) ; 



c. characteristic (song-sparrow); 



d. habitat (house-sparrow). 



3. Any two or more names or words in joint arbitrary use (road-runner, 

 turnstone). 



4. A phrase consisting of an adjective and a noun, together used as a 

 mere name : generally written without the hyphen (redpoll, yellowlegs, 

 goldeneye). 



For additional information on these various word-forms and 

 the underlying principles, see ' The Compounding of English 

 Words,' by F. Horace Teall. The literature on this subject is 

 very meager, 



I have selected from the ' Check-List ' representatives of the 

 various incorrect forms, giving also the corresponding numbers in 

 a column at the left. At the right is given a reference to the 

 foregoing rule which governs each case. In some cases two or 

 three rules apply. Many words are followed by "etc." to indicate 

 that several other words of the same group are compounded in 

 accordance with the same rule ; for example, all the different 

 kinds of screech-owl, humming-bird, song-sparrow, etc. 



List of Names. 



15 rhinoceros-auklet 2a 



29 pigeon-guillemot 2a 



39 ivory-gull 2a 



51 herring-gull, etc. i 



56 mew-gull 2c 



113. 1 red-tailed tropic-bird 3 



144 wood-duck 2d 



