352 Trotter, English Names of American Birds. [0^ 



of Scandinavian origin and meaning "chirper" or "piper." "Snow 

 Bunting" is the old name of Plectrophenax nivalis and should 

 rightly replace the fanciful "Snownake." Our "Tree Sparrow" 

 is the result of a confusion of the American species (Spizella monti- 

 cola) with the Mountain or Tree Sparrow of Europe (Passer mon- 

 tanns). This was corrected by Pennant, but the name "tree" 

 was retained. 



A rather curious case of name transfer is that of our Yellow- 

 breasted Chat {Icteria virens). The bird first appears under this 

 title in Catesby's Work (I, 50), and was evidently so-called by him 

 in a mistaken idea that it was related to the birds of the same name 

 belonging to the European genus Saxicola. This fact is made 

 evident by the Latin word amanthe used in the descriptive designa- 

 tion. 



The name "buzzard" as applied to the Turkey Vulture appears 

 early in the literature of American birds. Catesby calls it "Turkey 

 Buzzard" (I, 6). As an old English name of Norman French 

 derivation (Busard, Latin Buteo) it had, as Newton points out 

 (Diet, of Birds, 767), a definite meaning in relation to the old 

 sport of "hawking." Birds of the genera Buteo and Circus (Har- 

 rier) were styled "buzzards" (more especially the species of the 

 former genus), of slow and heavy flight, and "were regarded with 

 infinite scorn, and hence in common English to call a man a buz- 

 bard is to denounce him as stupid." With the exception of eagles 

 and owls and a few kites all birds of prey in this country are termed 

 "hawks," and "buzzard" has been relegated to this slow-moving, 

 carrion-feeding species. 



II. Names Derived from a Latin Equivalent. 



Several of our English bird names have come into every-day 

 speech by the anglicizing of their generic titles. The Linnsean 

 genus Oriohis (from "Oriole," Latin aurum, gold) included 

 certain species of Icteridse which though very different from the 

 European Oriohis galbula, still bear its name. "Junco" and 

 "Vireo" are anglicized generic names. The word "grackle" 

 applied to certain species of our Icteridse appears to be an angli- 

 cized word derived from the Linnsean genus Gracula. < The word 



