ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BIRDS. 95 



tive, were named from the real or fancied 

 resemblance of their songs or call-notes to 

 certain articulate words or sounds. On 

 this principle of onomatopoeia the che- 

 wink, the wood-pewee, the phoebe bird, 

 the chicadee, the bobolink, and the veery 

 received their names. The last-mentioned 

 bird was undoubtedly a veery long before 

 he was a Wilson's thrush. Perhaps the 

 most remarkable of our birds in this re- 

 spect, however, is the whippoorwill, whose 

 weird nocturnal cry is as easily turned into 

 English as the chirping of the katydid. 

 The Indians, however, translated it into 

 " wish-ton-wish," which, perhaps, would be 

 the better version ; and Cooper, in his 

 novel by that name, tells us that this bird 

 is in some quarters vulgarly called " the 

 whippoorwill." 



It has probably been observed by most 

 of my readers that the nearer you are 

 to the bird, the more difficult it is 

 to distinguish the words of the English 

 translation. 



On the comparative merits of the Eng- 



