184 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 
Povey: The BARN-OWL. (Gloucestershire.) 
PRAHEEN CarRK: 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 GODWIT. (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. 
Provup-TaILor : The GOLDFINCH. (Midlands.) 
PROVENCE Furze.ina. 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. 
PuckerRIDGE: 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.” 
Purtr. 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 
