184 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



POVEY : The BARN-OWL. (Gloucestershire.) 



PRAHEEN CARK : The HOODED CROW. (Ireland.) Signifies 

 the " hen crow." 



PRATINCOLE [No. 354]. The name first occurs in Pennant 

 (ed. 1776) as a rendering of Kramer's name Pratincola 

 (1756). 



PRIDDEN PRAL. A west Cornwall name for the GREAT TIT- 

 MOUSE and BLUE TITMOUSE ; signifies " tree babbler." 



PRINE : The BAR-TAILED GOD WIT. (Essex.) From its 

 habit of probing the mud for food (Swainson). 



PRINPRIDDLE: The GREAT TITMOUSE. (Staffordshire.) 

 According to Poole's Glossary. Swainson also makes it 

 an equivalent of " Pridden pral " in Cornwall for the LONG- 

 TAILED TITMOUSE. 



PROUD-TAILOR : The GOLDFINCH. (Midlands.) 



PROVENCE FURZELING. Macgillivray's name for the DARTFORD 

 WARBLER. 



PTARMIGAN [No. 465]. The name is from the Gaelic 

 Tarmachan. Occurs in Willughby (1678) as " White Game 

 or White Partridge." Sibbald (1684) however called it 

 Ptarmigan, and he is followed by most subsequent authors. 

 According to Inwards it is a Scottish belief that the fre- 

 quently repeated cry of the Ptarmigan low down on the 

 mountains during frost and snow indicates more snow and 

 continued cold. 



PUCKERIDGE : The NIGHTJAR. (Hants.) Newton thinks it 

 is possibly connected with A. Sax. puca, a goblin or demon. 

 In Gilbert White's " Observations on Birds," published in 

 the "Naturalists' Calendar" (1795), it is related that in 

 Hampshire, where it sometimes goes by this name, " The 

 Country people have a notion that it is very injurious to 

 weanling calves, by inflicting, as it strikes at them, the 

 fatal distemper known to cow-leeches by the name of 

 puckeridge." In west Sussex and west Surrey it becomes 

 " Puck-bird." 



PUETT. An obsolete Cheshire name for the LAPWING. 

 (Holland's " Glossary.") 



PUFFIN [No. 449]. The word is apparently a diminutive 

 (=puffing) and was possibly given at first to the young of 

 this bird, which for long was known only by various local 

 names in different parts of the coast. The name would 

 therefore apply to the downy covering of the young birds, 

 e.g. a diminutive of "puff" or "puffy." The Welsh 



