WITH CHILDREN IN BIRDLAND 81 



limited satisfaction from hearing his common birds 

 and plants honored with good, mouth-filling titles. 



Dwelling on this matter of nomenclature, Bur- 

 roughs remarks that he once found a little water- 

 creature new to him, and invited a learned man's 

 opinion as to its identity. The reply was compre- 

 hensive, the find being fixed as "a species of phyllo- 

 podus Crustacea known as Eubranchipus vernalis." 

 "This title," observes Burroughs, "conferred a new 

 dignity on my fish, but, when the learned man added 

 that it was familiarly called the fairy shrimp, I felt 

 a deeper pleasure." 



On the same principle, we want more easy, grace- 

 ful vernaculars for our Australian birds, names as 

 simple and musical as Bobolink, Chickadee, and 

 Whipoorwill, before we can hope to have our poets 

 put forward a production to rival the excellent 

 American anthology, "Through the Year with Birds 

 and Poets." Many of the old, heavy names have 

 disappeared, thanks be, but there are others in the 

 way still. Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike, White- 

 shouldered Caterpillar-eater, Yellow-bellied Shrike- 

 Tit names such as these (all belonging to common 

 birds) would surely be too much for even Mr. Ber- 

 nard O'Dowd to weave into a song! 



Consider a lyric poet's view on the point : 



"Undoubtedly there is," runs a letter from 

 Roderic Quinn, "a vast virgin field for the inspira- 

 tion of Australian poets to be found in the bird-life 

 of our country. If the lovers of our little friends 

 of the forest and scrub could only succeed in releas- 

 ing the birds of Australia from the ugly, unmusical, 

 and borrowed names early bestowed upon them, it 



