No. 21.] BIRD NAMES. QQ 



and Tuckerton, N. J., SALT-WATER SHELDRAKE; and Giraud 

 writes, Birds of Long Island, 1844, "called by our gunners 

 PIED SHELDRAKE" (see No. 23 for use of "pied" on Long 

 Island). 



At Crisfield, Md., PHEASANT. (For other water-fowl to 

 which the word "pheasant" is attached, see Nos. 13, 20, 22.) 



At Morehead, N. C., FISHERMAN and FISHING-DUCK. These 

 last two names, though used at Morehead for this bird only, are 

 sometimes loosely applied to the three mergansers (Nos. 20, 21, 

 22). We also hear FISH-DUCK and SAW-BILL thus indiscrimi- 

 nately applied ; and William F. Davis, of the Thimble Islands, 

 Conn., tells of hearing the name OAR-BILL used for mergansers 

 in general, " by visiting sportsmen " from parts unknown. 



Captain Bob Petty, of Bellport, L. I., informs" me that this, 

 the Red-breasted Merganser, is known " to all the gunners about 

 Mobile" (Ala.) as the SEA BEC-SCIE (this l>eing an English- 

 French combination, meaning sea " saw-bill "). 



In a Notice of the Ducks and Shooting of the Chesapeake, 

 by Dr. J. T. Sharpless, Cabinet of Nat. Hist., Vol. III., 1833, the 

 present species is referred to as HAIRY-CROWN, a name remind- 

 ing us of that similar one, Hairy-head, belonging to Hooded Mer- 

 ganser, No. 22. 



De Kay, in New York Zoology, 1844, mentions "Whistler" 

 among other names, as given to this species in New York State. 

 He elsewhere records the title as applied in same state to the 

 Hooded Merganser. I do not feel like giving special emphasis 

 to these applications of a term so commonly used, then as now, 

 for the Golden-eye, No. 23. 



We find the following in Rev. Charles Swainson's Provincial 

 Xames of British Birds, 1885 : SAWNEB (Aberdeen) : SAWBILL 

 WIDOEON (Gal way) : HERALD (Shetland Isles) : HERALD DUCK 

 (Forfar and Shetland Isles) : HARLE or HARLE DUCK (Orkney 

 Isles): EARL DUCK (East Lothian): LAND HARLAN (Wexford): 

 BARDRAKE (Down), "from the brown and ash colored streak 

 on the rump;" this name being mentioned elsewhere by the 

 author as applied in Ireland to Tadorna comuta, the common 

 Sheldrake of the Old Country: SCALE DUCK (Strangford 



