'76 Ingersoll 077 Common Names of Americatt Birds. [April 



ousel) is an old English word for Thrush, allied to the German 

 amsel. Many European names exist, and we have imported 

 one, Dipper ; this simply means '-diver," coming directly from 

 the same root. Its small size and lively manner gives it the 

 names Water Wren in Colorado, and (adding its brilliant song) 

 Water Oriole on the Northwest Coast. Among the miners of 

 Nevada it figures as Water Turkey^ a term having as much 

 sense as that of " Winter Geese" given by the Nahant people to 

 the Snow Bunting. 



The next names worthy of notice are those of the Paridce. 

 Tit originally signified something small ; by itself it stood as a 

 name of a small bird. But our word is confounded with the 

 Angle-Saxon mdse^ the name of several sorts of little birds in 

 that language. It has no connection with "mouse," which comes 

 from a different root ; therefore its plural should not be titmice, 

 which involves this error, but titmouses. The root of mdse 

 signifies "■ to diminish," and hence the latter part of the name, 

 as well as the former, refers to the small size of the birds — 

 about the smallest, indeed, with which northern nations are pop- 

 ularly acquainted. Tomtit is an aftectionate nickname suggested 

 by alliteration, like Tom Thumb. 



The local American names of our Titmouses call for short 

 mention. Lophophanes bicolor is the Tutted or Crested Tit or 

 Titmouse^ for obvious reasons. Thomas Nuttall designated it 

 Peto — I suppose after its note ; and Mr. E. A. Small writes me 

 that in Western Maryland it is called Peter-bird ; also Stortn- 

 bird and Spring-bird^ explaining that " its notes are generally 

 heard in damp ^veather in the spring and late winter." No 

 explanation is required for the word Chickadee belonging to 

 several species of Partis^ for anyone who has ever heard its 



" Saucy note 



Out of sound heart and merry throat." 



An allied species of the West, Auriparus Jiaviceps^ is known 

 as the Tellow-headed Titmouse (or in Mexican Paro amarillo) 

 and Verdin, meaning " greenlet." In Texas its yellow-daubed 

 head has won it the name Fat-eater ; while the Mexicans there 

 seek to imitate its voice in Pitachoche. 



This brings me to the Sittidce or Nuthatches — birds that 

 "hack" or "cut" nuts, perpetuating an error so far as this family 



