272 THE ZOOLOGIST 



dying or dead when it is detected by the rue, and that the clause 

 et ainsi le tue is an interpolation by another hand than that of 

 the author, there results a fairly accurate description of the 

 movements of a Vulture when it detects carrion, and flies down 

 towards it. I submit to the impartial reader the conclusion at 

 which I have arrived, namely, that the oral narration of Marco 

 Polo was imperfectly translated into French, that it has suffered 

 detrimentally in subsequent transcriptions, and that the rue of 

 the traveller is an African Vulture, such as, for example, Gyps 

 kolbi or G. ruepelli. 



Albatross is said to be derived from the Spanish word alcatroz, 

 which occurs in the journal of the first voyage of Columbus, 

 wherein it is employed for the Booby. But no truly intermediate 

 form is known, and it is, I think, more reasonable to hold that 

 if albatross has been adopted into English from a Bomance 

 language, it has been so adopted from the Portuguese word 

 albatroz. Etymologically, however, if not in meaning, alcatroz 

 seems to be connected with alke and auk. Further than this, 

 the word, I believe, cannot be traced. A lost late Latin word 

 albatrus may have existed. Antennal is another Portuguese 

 name of the Albatross. This word is connected with antenna, 

 "a ship's yard"; the French word envergure, "breadth of 

 sail"; and, in a secondary sense, "expanse of wing" has also 

 been employed to denote a sea-bird, probably one of the Alba- 

 trosses.* 



Pijlstaart is the Dutch name which was bestowed by Abel 

 Tasman, in 1643, upon a small island situated to the south-west 

 of the Tongan Group, because of the large number of pijlstaarten 

 which were seen by him near the island. Burney was of opinion 

 that the pijlstaart was the Tropic-bird, and Dr. Heeres holds the 

 same opinion. But lexicographers define the pijlstaart as a small 

 duck with a long and pointed tail, evidently desiring thereby to 

 indicate the Pintail or the Long-tailed Duck, or possibly both of 

 these ducks. Glaucium is said to be the Latin, negrette the 

 French equivalent of pijlstaart. The former word is evidently 

 the Latin form of the Greek yxamiov, concerning which I can 

 only find that it was a water-bird with grey eyes ; whilst of 



* ' Nouveau voyage a la ruer du sud,' p. 16. 



