388 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Note on the Starling. — During the nesting season of 1895 a pair of 

 Starlings nested in the aperture left for the flagstaff to pass up through at 

 the top of an obelisk standing a short distance from my residence. I presume 

 they are the same pair of birds that have bred in the same place for a 

 number of years. In the season I mention I noticed that there were three 

 old birds tending the young brood ; and while watching them I noticed that 

 the third bird was a very unwelcome visitor, as two of them frequently 

 arrived at the entrance either together or nearly so, and when they found 

 the third bird near the place they at once joined in a most determined chase 

 until the intruder was driven far away from their nursery ; but again and 

 again the would-be godmother returned to the nest. I took it to be a hen 

 bird, and thought it very probable that it had lost a former nest or a late 

 partner. In answer to many enquirers I may state that I have never 

 known a pair of Starlings rear two broods in one season. — James Sutton 

 (Durham). 



[Although Starlings do not as a rule rear more than one brood in a 

 season, instances of their doing so have been recorded. — Ed.] 



Penguin : Derivation of the Name. — On this subject Prof. Newton, 

 in his 'Dictionary of Birds' (part iii. p. 703), has a very instructive foot- 

 note. He remarks that of the three derivations assigned to this name the 

 first is by Drayton in 1613 {Polyolbion, Song 9), where it is said to be the 

 Welsh pen gwyn, or white-head ... in opposition to which hypothesis it 

 has been urged (1) that there is no real evidence of any Welsh discovery of 

 the bird, (2) that it is very unlikely for the Welsh, if they did discover it, 

 to have been able to pass on their name to English navigators, and (3) that 

 it had not a white head, but only a patch of white thereon. With regard 

 to the other two derivations as suggested (I. c), I am not now concerned ; 

 but as to that above quoted, it may be observed that in Howell's 'Familiar 

 Letters' there is one dated "Westminster 9 Aug. 1630," addressed by the 

 author to the Earl of Rutland (Book II. Letter lv.), in which the following 

 remarks occur on Welsh words found in America, including the word 

 Pengwin : — " There are some who have been curious in the comparison of 

 tongues who believe that the Irish is but a dialect of the ancient British; 

 and the learnedest of that nation, in a private discourse I happened to have 

 with him, seemed to incline to this opinion. But this I can assure your 

 lordship of, that at my being in that country I observed by a private 

 collection which I made, that a great multitude of their radical words are 

 the same with the Welsh, both for sense and sound ; the tone also of both 

 the nations is consonant. For when first I walked up and down Dublin 

 Markets methought verily I was in Wales." [Howell, be it observed, was 

 an educated Welshman, a clerk of the Privy Council.] He adds:— "But 

 my lord you would think it strange that divers pure Welsh words should 

 be found in the new found world in the West Indies yet it is verified by 



