72 



Ingersoll on Common Names of American Birds. [Apnl 



Setophaga ruticilla {L.) Sxu. May 3 I noticed a single fe- 

 male ; the 5th, a pair ; the 8th, three males in diflerent flocks, 

 and the 9th I found them very numerous. After this date and 

 until the 15th, they rather outnumbered the other species, when 

 the number rapidly diminished. I found it breeding here very 

 abundantly, the first egg being taken the 3rd of June. 



THE COMMON NAMES OF AMERICAN BIRDS. 



BY ERNEST INGERSOLL. 



The Thrush family — here regarded in its broadest sense, for 

 the sake of convenience — does not present a wide range of ver- 

 nacular synonyms except in respect to two or three species, nor 

 are these difficult of explanation. 



The word Thrtish is very old, appearing in substantially the 

 same shape — the il sound having superseded an older y or — 

 in the Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon languages. I believe that the 

 origin of the word was a reference to the throat, or in other 

 words to the singing powers of this family, whose voice is prob- 

 ably their most notable trait ; and this view is strengthened when 

 it is remembered that the old German word drozzd coming from 

 the same root as our English throat gives drossel in modern 

 German as the word for " thi-oat," "throttle," and also for 

 "thrush." Under Thrasher I shall adduce a further argument. 

 From the earliest times, then, the Thrushes have been consid- 

 ered preeminently the song-birds of the world. 



Taking up the list in regular order, the first to present itself is 

 Tttrdus 7nzistelinus. Its common names are : Wood Thrush., 

 Wood Robin., Swamp Robift., Swamp Angel (Adirondacks) , 

 Bogtrot (South Carolina), Alondra del Monte (Mexico). All 

 of these evidently refer to its habitual forest-resort and its Thrush- 

 or Robin-like (for frequently these words are confused) character. 

 The terms Song Thrtish and Grive des Bois Flide (Canada) 

 point to the striking music of this bird, the French literally 

 meaning "the flute-voiced Thrush of the woods." Referring to 



