442 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the characteristic notes which the birds emit ; others are taken 

 from peculiarities of colouring or appearance ; and the largest 

 class is of those names which refer to peculiar habits, and these 

 seem to be the oldest, for they are often so modified from their 

 original form that it is difficult to find out their hidden meaning. 

 But there are others which are quaintly named from some human 

 attribute or sympathy, or bear some mythological reference ; one 

 bird, the Pheasant, is named after the place whence it seems 

 to have been first brought — from the river Phasis, in Colchis, a 

 province of Asia east of the Black Sea, now known as Mingrelia. 

 There is yet another category, which includes names we can 

 trace directly to Latin or Greek, although often we can go no 

 further. 



To begin with those which are imitative, though not all strictly 

 onomatopoeic, we have some which so plainly indicate the note 

 they describe that they require no explanation ; these are, to take 

 them in alphabetical order, Chat, such as Woodchat, Whinchat, 

 Stonechat, &c. ; Chiffchaff, Crake, Cuckoo, Curlew, Kittiwake, 

 Peewit (in French Dix-huit), Pipit, Skua, and Twite. There can 

 be no question about them, for one who knows them in their 

 natural haunts. But it is not so obvious that Bittern comes from 

 the bird's drumming note or " booming," though there is little 

 doubt about the fact. The names Chough, Crow, Baven, and 

 Book, all seem to denote the hoarse cries emitted by the Corvine 

 birds. Cirl Bunting has long concealed its origin, but it seems 

 clear that it comes to us from the Italian name zirolo, and is con- 

 nected with zirlarc, to cry zi-zi. Egret and Heron, for all their 

 dissimilarity, are really the same words ; both come from the old 

 High German hiegro, a heron, which Prof. Skeat thinks refers to 

 its harsh voice. Hiegro became in French aigre, of which the dimi- 

 nutive is aigrette, our Egret ; hiegro also became in Low Latin 

 aigro, and (in the tenth century) airo, whence the modern French 

 heron, our Heron. Heronshaw means a young Heron, being cor- 

 rupted from the French h&ronceau, as is proved by the northern 

 form Heronsew ; but Heronshaw, meaning a heronry, is a " shaw" 

 or wood where Herons build. Finch, like the provincial Pink and 

 Spink, is probably connected with " spangle," and the Lettish 

 spingeti, to glitter; it means not so much the "bright" as the 

 "clear-voiced" bird; from the same root we have, in Greek, 

 Qsyyos, light, and pQeyyopai, I speak. Hoopoe is cognate with the 



