Vol l90? VI ] Trotter, English Names of American Birds. 351 



(the Magpie, "mag" being a contraction of "Magot" or "Madge," 

 a feminine name formerly bestowed upon this bird), "revyn" 

 (raven), "parthryd," and "quale." "Jay" also appears in its 

 present day spelling and with its Latin equivalent Graculusque. 

 which may be the origin of our modern word "Grackle." "Jay" 

 is from old French "gai" equivalent to "gay" (plumage). 



In a Nominale, or list of words, of fifteenth century date w r e find 

 "wagsterd" (Wagtail), "nuthage" (Nuthatch), and "buntyle" 

 (Bunting). In a curious pictorial vocabulary, also of the fifteenth 

 century, "Kingfisher" appears as "kynges-fychere" and "Wood- 

 pecker" as "wodake" or "woodhock." Our "Redstart" evi- 

 dently received its name by suggestion from a very different bird 

 of the Old World (Ruticilla phoenicurus) . It is so called by Catesby 

 (I, 67). "Start" is from Anglo-Saxon "steort" — a tail. "Tit- 

 mouse" has been transferred to various American species of the 

 family (Catesby figures the "Crested Titmouse," I, 57), the prefix 

 "tit" meaning small. "Mouse" is from Anglo-Saxon mdse, a 

 name, according to Skeat, for several kinds of small birds and not 

 to be confounded with the mammal of the same name. Hence, 

 the plural "titmouses," not "titmice," is the proper form though 

 usage has established it otherwise. "Shrike" is another name 

 transferred from European to allied American species. The name 

 probably had its origin in the voice of this bird or of some thrush, 

 and later bestowed upon the members of the Laniidse (see Newton, 

 Diet, of Birds, 843). "Martin" (and its older form "Martlet") 

 was evidently a nickname applied to a European Swallow (Chelidon 

 urbicd) and given by the colonists to our species of the genus 

 Progne. Bartram calls the bird "The great purple martin." 



"Blackbird," applied to certain American species of Icteridse, is 

 a name suggested purely by color. Catesby early gave to our 

 Agelaius phceniceus its more nearly correct title of "Red-wing'd 

 Starling" (I, 13). Kalm (Forster) uses the older form "stare" 

 (Eng. Trans., II, 73-79) and likewise refers to the species of Quis- 

 calus as "blackbirds," remarking that "The English call them 

 blackbirds" (Eng. Trans., I, 291). Our Goldfinch appears first in 

 Catesby as "The American Goldfinch" (I, 43), the name clearly 

 borrowed from the Old World Carduelis elegans. "Siskin" in 

 like manner comes from the Old World, the word being originally 



