THE MEANING OF ENGLISH BIRD-NAMES. 443 



upupa ; those who have had the good fortune to hear its note say 

 that it is even sweeter than the Cuckoo's ; the French word huppe 

 came to mean a tuft of feathers, from the Hoopoe's tufted head. 

 Owl is the bird that "howls": dropping h's is a habit as old as 

 language itself. Quail was in Dutch quackel, i. e. the bird that 

 " quacks"; the present form comes from the French caille, in old 

 French quaille, Italian quaglia, from the Low Latin quaquila. 

 Eail is the bird that "rattles"; in old Dutch rallen was short for 

 ratelen, to rattle ; the French rale means a rattle as well as a rail. 

 Shrike is the bird that " shrieks." Siskin is akin to the Dutch 

 sissen, to hiss or twitter. Turtle, from the Latin turtur, through 

 its French diminutive tourterelle, is the bird that cries tur-tur. 

 Whooper is expressive of the Wild Swan's loud and trumpet-like 

 notes. 



In my next category, where names of birds are derived from 

 their appearance, many sufficiently explain themselves, such as 

 Blackbird, Blackcap, Bluethroat, Crossbill, Firecrest, Goldcrest, 

 Goldfinch, Golden-eye, Greenfinch, Greenshank, Grosbeak, Pintail, 

 Eazorbill, Kedbreast, Redpoll, Redshank, Redstart (where -start 

 is the Anglo-Saxon steort, a tail), Redwing, Stilt, Waxwing, 

 Whitethroat, Wryneck, and Yellowshank. In others, however, 

 the meaning is considerably obscured, either by the successive 

 changes through which the name has passed during its develop- 

 ment from the primitive form, or from cognate words having 

 dropped out of use. Avocet is in Italian avocetta ; Prof. Skeat, to 

 whom I am indebted for many valuable suggestions, finds that in 

 Spanish the Wigeon is called avucasta, and this he connects with 

 our word " avocet " ; perhaps the delicate appearance and purely 

 contrasted plumage of the bird may have gained it the name of 

 avis casta, the " chaste bird." Avocet, Bustard, and Ostrich are 

 thus all compounds of the Latin avis, a bird, notwithstanding their 

 dissimilarity : avis casta, avis tarda, and avis struthio having been 

 the original forms. Brent is probably "burnt" goose, from its 

 generally charred appearance. Coot is the " bob-tailed hen"; it 

 is in Welsh civtiar, from civta, short, bob-tailed, and iar, a hen ; 

 so that coot is cognate with " cut." Cormorant is from corvus 

 marinus, the "sea crow"; the Portuguese call it corvo-marinho, 

 but our word may be confused with the Latin corvus, a crow, and 

 the Breton name for the Cormorant, morvran, from mor, the sea 

 and bran, a crow. Dunlin is the " little dun bird." Falcon is 



