THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 181 



necessary are added. Yet so zealously is this 

 impressment of letters earned on, that we sometimes 

 find two, three, or even more, beyond the necessary 

 number smuggled into the service. The English 

 name of the genus Cucidus is generally written 

 Cuckoo ; the k is however superfluous, for the bird 

 does not say, Cuc-koo, but Cu-coo. Jenyns has 

 written it Cuckow, and formerly it was always thus 

 written, though sometimes by way of ornament an e 

 was added by way of a " terminal letter !" If, as 

 some maintain, (though I think erroneously) the bird 

 does sound the consonant in the middle twice, why 

 then repeat it twice thus — Cuccoo, for surely the 

 same sound should be represented by the same letter. 

 The Greek is analagous to the latter mode, the 

 French, Latin, and Italian to the former. 



We frequently likewise see ChifFchaff, which is 

 produced by the same unaccountable itch for which 

 the English are celebrated, to multiply their letters- 

 Why take four /'s, when two would do as well ? — 

 Chifchaf. The Coturnix is written Quail in English, 

 but I have followed the French, and written it Cuail 

 or Cwail : c, k, and q have exactly the same power, 

 and are, in short, merely different forms for the same 

 sound. In a little book lately published, Latham's 

 Grammatical Sketch of the Greek Language, two 

 of them are very properly abandoned as unnecessary. 



Among the universal names, Silvia is frequently 

 written with a y, which is wrong, since the Romans 

 wrote with an i : Johnson in his Dictionary also 



