1SS3.I Ingersoll on Common Names of American Birds. '7 C 



The spotted plumage is expressed iil the German name Spott- 

 vogel or Shpotfogel as it is spelled in Pennsylvania. Indian 

 names at my disposal are two : Tuswahaya (Florida Seminoles) ; 

 and Tshitshikniin (Delawares) . 



Galeoscoptes carolinensis^ Cat-bird., was a name early and 

 spontaneously decided upon for this Thrush, whose mewing note 

 at once suggests it. Cat Flycatcher (Pennant) , Merle Catbird., 

 Chat (Canada), KatsaJ^ogel (Penna. Germ.) and Zorzal gato 

 (Cuban), ail ring changes upon this point; probably Bartram's 

 name Chicken-bird belongs to the same category. Color is 

 designated in Blackbird (Bermudas — where also it is properly 

 called Mockingbird^., and in D'Orbigny's French name Merle 

 (% derriere roux., — the Red vented Blackbird. 



The Harporhynchus rufus is a bird of many names suggested 

 bv more than one striking point in its character. Its strong color 

 and mimicking voice gives us Fox-coloured Thrush (Bartram 

 and others) ; Ferruginous Thrush (Wilson) or Ferruginous 

 Mockingbird (Audubon) ; Rufous-tailed Thrush^ Grive 

 rouge (Canada), Sandy Mockingbird (Dist. of Col.), Brown 

 or Red Thrush., Red Mavis (recalling an English songbird), 

 and Brown Thrasher. 



The last of these ( Thrasher^ is perhaps the most often heard 

 of all its names in the Northern and Middle States. The word is 

 undoubtedly another derivative from, the root of thrush just as 

 the Swedish trast is ; or you may say that it came from the root 

 of the verb to thresh (in Anglo-Saxon therscan)^ \\-\c original 

 meaning of which was to make a rattling noise, — one of the 

 most prominent of the utterances of this garrulous bird. 



Its imitative powers have given it several names, such as two 

 or three quoted above ; American Mockingbird (Wisconsin) ; 

 French Mockingbird (Southern States-- distinguishing from 

 M. polyglotttis) ; Carolina Mockingbird, and so on. In the 

 name Corn-planter (New Jersey and Massachusetts) we have 

 a recognition of the time of its appearance in the spring, when 

 the maize-seed is being put into the ground. "While you are 

 planting your seed," says Thoreau, "he cries— 'Drop it, drop it- 

 cover it up, cover it up — pull it up, pull it up, pull it up.' " 



CiNCLUS Mexicanus. The notable habits and waterside 

 haunts of Cinclus mexicanus, together with its affinity to the 

 Thrushes, have given it the name " Water Otizel" for ouzel (or 



