462 NAMES OF THE WAXWING 



afiTzeXoq, the grape-vine — the root of a set of words signifjing 

 or relating to the vine and vineyard, as d/i-neXecbv, AintsXtthv, 

 ifi-eXcbv, ifiTziXivoq, and many others; the form ifimX^K; itself 

 appears in some of the lexicons, not of the highest authority, 

 as a diminutive of a/n:eXo<;, and I also find iix-KsXiibv itself given 

 as the name of some small unknown bird, " avicula qucedam 

 incerta,^' which either frequented vineyards, or was a noted 

 berry-eater. Ampelis, as the name of the bird, occurs in Aris- 

 tophanes, but what he meant by it is unknown; certainly, the 

 Waxwing never frequented the vineyards of the south of Europe 

 to any extent. The name does not occur in Aristotle, nor do I 

 find it used in connection with the Waxwing by the writers 

 of the 16th and 17th centuries ; Linnaeus may possibly have 

 first afiSxed it to this bird in 1735. Before this time, however, 

 the bird had, of course, been long and well known to the peo- 

 ple of Northern Europe, and had received a number of vernac- 

 ular or popular names, among which the equivalents of " silky- 

 tail" and " Bohemian " are conspicuous. The latter term doubt- 

 less had its original application in the appearances of the bird 

 in Bohemia, and stuck to it, as indicating its wandering dispo- 

 sition, in the tropical sense we now attach to the term. In any 

 event, our Waxwing became the " Bohemian Jay " of writers 

 of the 16th and 17th centuries, this book-name being generally 

 rendered Oarrulus bohemicus, as by Gesner* and many others 

 who wrote their treatises in Latin, or gave birds Latin names. 

 The various equivalents of " silky-tail " are specially interest- 

 ing, as they are the source of the quasi-Latin name Bombycilla 

 [^ofiiSuS, hombyx, a worm — and species of Bombyx are the silk- 

 worms) by simple translation of sidenswantz, seydenschtranz, 

 seidenschwanz, and other forms of " silk-tail". This is used also 



* Gesner (p. 446, ed. of 1617) treats very briefly " de gnapkalo " (Gnaphalvs, 

 Tvcupa^og), which he says is the bird called Seydenschwanz in German, and 

 which is probably so named from the character of the plumage. He refers 

 to a subsequent page of his work (p. 636), where the same bird is described 

 and figured under the name of Garrvlvs Bohemicus. Here we read : — " Gar- 

 rvlum Bohemicnm appello auem hanc, cuius picturam ab Argentoratensi 

 pictore accepi, qui nomen eius iguorabat, sed ab aliis postea didici hao 

 specie auem circa Norimhergam vocavi Behemle id est Bohemicam, . . 

 Alii alio Germanico Zinzerelle vocitant, hand scio an &, voois imitatione." 

 From the way this paragraph opens, we are free to infer that this was the 

 original use of the term Garrulua toliemicus in this connection. He de- 

 scribes and figures the Waxwing unmistakably, even to the sealing-wax 

 tips ("maculae quiuEe egregie rnbentes, quas natura corneas esse quidam 

 mihi retulit"). 



