106 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
Guinea Hen, but as the birds became commoner and better 
known, the confusion was gradually cleared up. 
Professor Newton also considers it to be the Guineafowl 
which is alluded to in ‘“ A description of Angus [Forfarshire],”’ 
by Robert Edward, a minister of Dundee, written in 1678, 
a translation of which appeared in 1793, from which he 
quotes *: “ Angus is well stored with tame birds, and the 
great people possess hens of Brazil, peacocks, geese and 
ducks. Pigeon-houses are frequent.” 
In this passage, which differs from the translation 
supplied in Harvie-Brown’s “ The Capercaillie in Scotland,’ 
the word “ Brissel’? has become corrupted into Brazil. I 
suppose this arose from some idea that Guineafowls had come 
from the recently discovered country of Brazil (in French 
Brésil) in South America,t just as some consider the name 
Turkey to have been given because these North American 
birds were thought to have come from Turkey.§ It is also 
pointed out that the name Brissel fowlis, which is equivalent 
to Brissel-cock, occurs in a letter written by James VI. of 
Scotland, on the occasion of the baptism of his second son 
Charles J.|| As regards the derivation of ‘“ Brissel,” in Pro- 
fessor Newton’s opinion it is simply a corruption of the French 
Coq de broussaille, that is, a cock of the brushwood, and he 
submits that the sixteenth century form of the word brotssaille 
brings it even nearer to the Scottish pronunciation. That it 
has any connection with the old Scotch word for to broil, which 
was “‘brissel,”’ as suggested by Mr. A. C. Jonas in “ Notes 
and Queries,’§] cannot for a moment be entertained. 
* «Notes and Queries,’ 1881, p. 369. 
{ 1879, p. 20. 
t On the other hand, Thomas Muffett (‘‘ Health’s Improvement,” 
p. 84) was hopelessly astray in his opinion that they came from North 
Africa. 
§ The name Turkey. — This was John Ray’s opinion, and perhaps 
Willughby’s too. After quoting Peter Gyllius, a traveller who died in 1555, 
after writing a work on the Antiquities of Constantinople, these authors say 
about the bird: ‘‘ In English they are called Turkeys, because they are thought 
to have been first brought to us out of Turkey ”’ (‘‘ Ornithology,’ p. 160). 
But there is still another and very different theory as to the meaning 
of the name Turkey, which Professor Newton was one of the first to put 
forward, viz. that by its own note, resembling “ turk,’’? the bird had very 
likely named itself (see ‘‘ Dictionary of Birds,’’ p. 994). 
|| ‘“* Notes and Queries,’”’ 1880, p. 203. 
q T.c., 1881, p. 193. 
