NOTES AND QUERIES. 109 



sent to me for exarainatiou. Its remains have been mounted for Mr. T. J. 

 Wallace, of Richmond, who shot the bird near Northallerton, Yorkshire. 

 During the last two months we have been visited by large flociis of Common 

 Scoters, and small companies of Scaup and Long-tailed Ducks ; I have 

 handled four immature specimens of the last named species. Many Little 

 Auks and Puffins have been picked up dead or in an exhausted condition 

 during the past few weeks. — Stanley Duncan (Redcar, Yorks). 



The Origin and Meaning of the Names of British Birds.— Referring 

 to Mr. Meiklejohn's communication on this subject (aw^e, p. 72), it does not 

 seem to be by any means certain that there is any real connection between 

 poke ( = to thrust) and poke or poche ( = a bag), whence we probably get 

 poacher. Mr. H. T. Wharton stated that "Pochard is the bird that 

 ' poaches,' that is, treads into the mire, as cattle do " (Zool. 1889, p. 446). 

 We use the word " jwach " in this sense in Oxon ; and I have heard a word 

 potch used to denote a falling into anything with a splash. Thus you may 

 go potch into a puddle or a boggy place. I do not know if this is anything 

 more than a slang word, but it is expressive. It is just possible (if this is 

 an old word) that the Pochard may have been thought to potch into the 

 water more than some other kinds of ducks. A bunch of Pochards certainly 

 do make a great splash sometimes when they alight. But I do not wish to 

 press this idea. It does not run in with " Poker." I am curious to know 

 the ground for the suggestion that the name Pochard at first referred to the 

 Wigeon (Zool. 1900, p. 514). By none of the early authors to whose works 

 I have been able to refer is the Wigeon called Pochard, although the Pochard 

 has been called Red-headed Wigeon. Unless Mr. Meiklejohn can show 

 that the Welsh Gwilym ( = a Guillemot) is the same word as the Welsh 

 Gwylan ( = a Gull ; Breton gwelan, golden, or goelann ; Cornish guilan or 

 gullan] — which is not likely — he will find it difficult to sustain his conten- 

 tion that the guille in Guillemot is the same word as gull. Ray (1674) has 

 Guilliam for Guillemot ; and Martin (1698) says that this bird is called 

 " by the Welch a Guillem." Prof. Newton calls attention to the resemblance 

 between the French Guillemot and Guillaume, and between the English 

 •' Willock " (a local name for the Guillemot) and William. Whether Guille- 

 mot is a French manufactured word or not, the first part of it at all events is 

 undoubtedly cognate with, if not derived from, the Welsh Gwilym. It does 

 not seem reasonable to suppose that the French called the Guillemot a 

 " gull-gull," which would be the meaning of a Celtic-Teutonic compound of 

 gwelan-\-moueUe or goeland-{-ynouette. I think that Nuthatch really does 

 MEAN Nut-cracker (in the sense of Nut breaker). Hack (hak) means to 

 cut, chop, or mangle.. You cannot properly be said to hack a thing unless 

 you cut into it, indent it, break it, or break a part ofi" it. To " hack at " 

 (p. 73) may be quite another thing. A bird may " hack at a nut, which may 



