Names of Animals, 5691 



My wish will be, wherever it is possible, to trace out this family 

 connexion ; not simply to rest satisfied with giving the root or origin 

 of any name, but to find out the Etymology, or true meaning of the 

 word, as well. In the present paper I shall confine my observations 

 to the names of our own indigenous Mammalia. 



I have now only to crave the indulgence of my readers : I must ask 

 them to act upon the golden rule of etymologists, " Never reject an 

 Etymology because it seems strange, or accept one because there is a 

 strong verbal similitude." Of course I do not expect all persons to 

 agree with me, nor do I wish it : I have no doubt I have made many 

 mistakes, and I wish nothing that I have said to be looked upon as a 

 dogmatic statement : I wish my attempt to go for what it is worth. I 

 put it forward in all diffidence, with the hope that it may, at all events, 

 serve as a stepping-stone by which some other mind shall be able to 

 grasp higher things than my own ability, leisure, and power of pro- 

 curing books can enable me to hope after reaching for myself. 



The etymology of the word bat is involved in most disheartening 

 obscurity : Skinner derives it from the Anglo-Saxon bat, a boat; be- 

 cause, with its wings expanded, it resembles a boat impelled by oars. 

 This hardly needs to be characterized as a fanciful conjecture: he, 

 however, compares it with its Arabic name, baphus. It is to be noticed 

 that G. Douglas calls it bak, and its Scotch name to this clay is buckle- 

 bird. 



Assuming the word to be aboriginal in its present shape, I shall ven- 

 ture to put forward a suggestion, first entering a caveat that I look upon 

 it as a mere conjecture. How is it that the word beetle signifies both 

 the insects known by that name and also a large hammer or mallet ? 

 In the latter sense it manifestly originates from the verb to beat ; and 

 the name of the insects may come from the same source, from the habits 

 of one of the best known of them, — the common cockchaffer : every 

 one knows what a pest this creature may become, when one is out on 

 a summer evening: they beat around your head and mob you, just as 

 swallows do to a cat. Now the little pipistrelle has a precisely similar 

 habit j and hence the fancy has crossed my mind that the name of but 

 may be drawn from hence. 



Flutter mouse, flitter mouse and its corruption flinty mouse are com- 

 mon provincial names for the bat: these need no explanation; but 

 they are interesting, inasmuch as, together with many other ver- 

 nacular terms, they show the just appreciation of natural affinities 

 which our rustic forefathers possessed. Reremouse is a somewhat 



