88 



BIRD NAMES. [No. 25. 



On Long Island we find the name Old Squaw dividing 

 honors with that of OLD WIFE, the latter continuing in more or 

 less general use to the sea-coast of Maryland. South of this, to 

 Eastville, Va. (I have no note of meeting with the species farther 

 south), and on Chesapeake Bay, it is the SOUTH SOUTHERLY, 

 frequently pronounced Sou' Southerly, and a corruption of this, 

 viz., SOU' SOUTHERLAND, is also common. The names Old 

 Squaw and Old "Wife are very rarely heard on this latter piece 

 of coast. 



At Crisfield, Md. (east shore of Chesapeake), SOUTHERLY, 

 and at Eastville, Va., SOUTHERLAND. 



Not one of the three old duckers conversed with at Seaford 

 (Hempstead), L. I. (1881), had heard any of these " southerly " 

 names, and at Crisfield, Md. (same year), I could find no one 

 who had heard " Old Squaw." I remember that while learning 

 to shoot, at Stonington, Conn., some thirty-five years ago, I was 

 more familiar with the name South Southerly and its elongated 

 form, SOUTH-SOUTH SOUTHERLY, than with any other. 



Wilson says (Vol. VIII., 1814), " This duck is very generally 

 known along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay by the name of 

 South Southerly, from the singularity of its cry, something imi- 

 tative of the sound of these words, and, also, that when very 

 clamorous they are supposed to betoken a southerly wind ; on 

 the coast of New Jersey they are usually called Old Wives." 



I am told that in Stonington, Conn., the words " John Con- 

 nolly " were popularly used, about fifty years ago, in imitation 

 of this bird's gabble, and they can be so repeated as to produce 

 a better imitation, I think, than the words now in use at Stony 

 Creek, same state, viz., " Uncle Iluldy," and " my Aunt Huldy." 



In New Jersey, at Pleasantville (Atlantic Co.), and Somers 

 Point, OLD MOLLY; at Atlantic City and Somers Point, OLD 

 GRANNY, and GRANNY simply ; at Cape May City, MOMMY; the 

 drake being distinguished at Pleasantville as OLD BILLY. 



On the Niagara Eiver, and about Lake St. Clair, COWEEN; 

 and Mcllwraith writes, in his Birds of Ontario, 1886, "Vast num- 

 bers of 'cowheens' (as these birds are called here) spend the 

 winter in Lake Ontario." Known also to French Canadians and 



