50 



NA TURE 



[May 19, 1887 



the older vocabularies, and is, there can be little question, 

 the early form also of "Shrike," though that was by one 

 of Turner's friends applied to a wholly different kind of 

 bird, which since 1544 has borne it, in books at any rate. 

 Indeed this last species {Lanius excubitor) has a very 

 doubtful claim to any English vernacular name at all, 

 though its common congener may rejoice in that of 

 Butcher-bird. But even under "Shrikes" we have no 

 reference to the Anglo-Saxon Scric, and we may remark 

 that here (p. 47) we find a passage, some four or five lines 

 in length, inclosed in inverted commas, as though a quota- 

 tion, and followed by " (Yarrell.)," as if the naturalist of 

 that name were its author. Truth compels us to say that 

 search in all the editions of Yarrell's classical work has 

 failed to show that the so-printed quotation is anything 

 but a paraphrase, and a very inadequate one, of the 

 passage Yarrell wrote. 



Coming to Mr. Swainson's second species, the Song- 

 Thrush (p. 3), we find no attempt to trace the nice dis- 

 tinction which runs through more than one Teutonic 

 tongue between Thrush and Throstle — the latter being 

 the diminutive of the former, as Prof. Skeat's " Dic- 

 tionary" shows, and our author is content to quote 

 Macgillivray at second-hand from Mr. Harting, whereby 

 an accidental error (slight, but enough to give the passage 

 a wrong meaning) is repeated. Space fails us to criticize 

 what else Mr. Swainson says of these two species alone, 

 and of course it would be impossible to go through the 

 whole of his volume in this way, even if we wished to do 

 so. Suffice it to say that there is scarcely a page to which 

 exception of one kind or another could not be taken, and 

 now let us turn to the very end of the book. Here (p. 217) 

 in what he says of the last but three of the species in 

 his list we find the astounding statement that from the 

 French word Guillemot (corresponding with the same in 

 English) comes the Welsh Guillem ! This is enough to 

 make any patriotic inhabitant of the principality go off 

 his head, for though doubtless the words have a common 

 origin, the derivation, if such there be, must be the other 

 way, and the modern French 1 Guillemot be the off- 

 spring of the Cymric and probably Breton Givillim, or 

 Gwylym as Pennant wrote it. On the next page, Mr. 

 Swainson gives us a piece of information as curious and, 

 we fear, unwarranted, telling us that the names Greenland 

 Dove and the like (applied to what in books is called 

 the Black— but here by accident misprinted "Lack"— 

 Guillemot) are bestowed on account of " the great attach- 

 ment shown to each other by the male and female, thus 

 resembling the dove." Ornithologists knew that in one 

 of its plumages the Tysty is very dove-like, but we think 

 they did not know, and, if they believe it, will doubtless 

 be thankful to Mr. Swainson for the news, that it is 

 remarkable for conjugal affection! We should doubt 

 whether the Rotch, or Little Auk, was ever called by 

 Icelanders "^//&a," for by that name, when properly spelt, 

 they mean the Razorbill ; and, arriving at the last bird in 

 the list, we are concerned to find that the Puffin is " so 

 called either from its puffed-out appearance, or from its 

 swelling beak." Setting aside the fact that no one who 

 has ever examined the compressed " coulterneb " of the 

 Puffin could reasonably apply thereto the epithet " swell- 



^'^^In older French, Guillemot was applied to a Plover, as by Belon in 



ing," we may remark that the name seems to have been 

 first applied to the young birds in their downy clothing, 

 which, when salted and dried, were held in some estima- 

 tion as an article of food, and were described by Gesner in 

 1555 (" Hist. Avium," pp. no, 768), from an account fur- 

 nished to him by Caius, as wanting true feathers, and 

 being covered only with a sort of woolly black plumage — 

 natural " powder-puffs," in fact. It is true that Caius 

 himself, fifteen years later (" Rarior. Animal. Libellus," 

 fol. 21) declared that the name is derived " a naturali 

 voce pupin " ; but that assertion will not be confirmed by 

 those who know the bird in life. Mr. Swainson would no 

 doubt have mentioned these particulars had he known 

 them, and he might easily have found them out by search- 

 ing for the earliest record of the species ; but, as before 

 remarked, investigation is a quality in which he appears 

 to be singularly deficient. 



There maybe readers who will condone such blemishes 

 as those of which we have given some half dozen instances 

 out of — we should be sorry to say how many that we 

 could notice. Several far more flagrant than those we 

 have particularized have attracted attention elsewhere,^ 

 and are therefore purposely passed over by us ; but before 

 we leave the subject we should like to say a few words on 

 the distinction which exists between r,?rt:/and what we may 

 perhaps call book names — a distinction in no way heeded 

 by our author. To use the phrase of Sir Hugh Evans, these 

 last are " affectations." They may or may not be needful, 

 they may or may not be apposite, and they may or may 

 not be adopted into our language ; but they are artificial 

 grafts, and not its natural outgrowth. Consequently, 

 from the linguistic and philological point of view, the 

 difference between the two classes of names should be 

 always most carefully drawn, and the more carefully since, 

 in some cases, the child of adoption puts on an appear- 

 ance amazingly like that of the child of generation. To 

 show this difference an investigation of the history of 

 names is needed ; but that is not attempted by Mr. 

 Swainson. Few persons would suspect that the name 

 " Dipper," which of late years has in common use almost 

 wholly ousted the Water-Ousel, Water-Crow, or Water- 

 Pyot of former days, was not Of very ancient origin, and 

 referred to that bird's habit of diving below the surface of a 

 stream in quest of its prey, as indeed is stated by Mr. Swain- 

 son (p. 30). Yet, directly we inquire into the history of the 

 name, we shall be unable to trace it beyond 1804, whennt 

 was apparently introduced by the writer of the work 

 known as " Bewick," and also find that it was applied 

 because the bird " may be seen perched on the top of a 

 stone in the midst of the torrent, in a continual dipping 

 motion, or short courtesy often repeated." Here the need 

 of explanation is all the greater, because this particular 

 sense of the word " dip " or " dipping " — though famihar 

 enough to our forefathers, has become almost obsolete, 

 and, indeed, is passed over by Prof. Skeat. " Dipper," 

 therefore, is nothing but a book-name. Then, again, 

 under "Hedge-Sparrow" — a name which must last 

 so long as Shakespeare is read — we have, amid half 

 a dozen genuine local synonyms, " Hedge-warbler, 

 Hedge-accentor, Hedge-chanter " brought in, as if they 

 were ever employed except by a few crotchety writers, 

 who tried to confine the use of the word Sparrow in 



I AtheucEum, March 19, 1887, pp. 386-3S7. 



