Jan. 21, igoB.I 
POR£ST AND STREAM. 
49 
French names for the magpie is "margot," a familiar con- 
traction of Margaret. The French often call the mis- 
chievous bird "Jacques," and "jacasser" means to chatter 
like a magpie. "Jackdaw" is a similar example, as well as 
"jacquot" — a name for a parrakeet kept as a cage bird, 
and frequently written "jocko" in English. The Indians 
of the West have many descriptive names for our mag- 
pie, and the Californians relate legends about it. The 
curious relation between pica and picus, the woodpecker, 
etc., will be referred to a little further on. 
The "flycatchers" constitute a large tribe of small, soft- 
billed birds living on insects, which they snap up mainly 
upon the wing. Our species are often distinguished by 
.their notes, as the "pewees," but also by plumage, as the 
'■scissor-tair' of Texas. The title of "kingbird" is . a true 
nom de plume, derived from the knightly crest, of feathers 
on its cap ; but "tyrant flycatcher" is in reference tO' the 
bird's, autocratic and pugnacious treatment of all other 
birds, even the largest. I have seen a kingbird _ riding 
gayly on the back of the big hawk he had got tired of 
nagging at, which recalled to my mind the European 
stories oi le roitelet. "Beebird" and "beemartin" disclose 
this bird's pestilent attacks upon the apiary. 
As to the hummingbirds, let me quote a comprehensive 
'note from Wallace's "Tropical Nature," p. 130: "The 
name we usually give to the birds of this family is derived 
from the sound of their rapidly moving wings— a sound 
which is produced by the largest as well as by the smallest 
member of the group. The Creoles of Guiana similarly 
call them Bourdons or hummers. The French term 
oiseaii mouche refers to their small size, while colibri is 
a native name which has come down from the Carib in- 
• habitants of the West Indies. The Spaniards and Portu- 
guese called them by more poetical names, such as flower- 
peckers, flowerkissers, myrtlesuckers, while the Mexican 
and Peruvian names show a still higher appreciation of 
their beauties, their meaning being rays of the sun, tresses 
of the day-star, and other such appellations. Even our 
modern naturalists, while studying the structure and 
noting the peculiarities of these living gems, have been 
so struck by their inimitable beauties that they have en- 
deavored to invent appropriate English names for the 
more beautiful and remarkable genera. Hence we find in 
common use such terms as sun-gems, sun-stars, hill-stars, 
wood-stars, sun-angels, star-throats, comets, coquettes, 
flame-bearers, sylphs and fairies; together with many 
others derived from the character of the tail or the crest." 
The swifts get their name from their exceedingly rapid 
flight ; and "chimney swallow," for our commonest one, 
is a misnomer. In England and Ireland they are often 
called "devilings" and "devil shriekers." 
The nocturnal and extraordinary manner and notes of 
the CaprimulgidcB have loaded them with erroneous epi- 
thets. The Latin family name given above is a translation 
of "goat sucker," which embodies an ancient old world 
error. "Night-bat" and "night-hawk" are equally wrong, 
scientifically, for the birds are neither bats nor hawks. 
' Night-jar" and "bull-bat" refer to the strange booming 
or tearing sound often emitted in their flight. "Death 
bird" is a name in the Bahamas, where the negroes attach 
tu the local species the office of foretelling a death by 
their nocturnal cry, which in our Southern States is trans- 
lated into "chuck-will's-widow" and "chip-the-red-oak- 
white-oak." Th*" earliest recorded designation of the 
"whippoorwill," another species, is "chuwhweeoo" (see 
Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc, IV., 222), which the Delawares 
called wecoalis, the Iroquois zvish-ton-zvioh, the Chippe- 
was niHckaitnss, etc. "Piramadig" (West Indies), "pum- 
pillion" (Cape Cod), and "mosquito hawk," are unusual 
names for our Chordeiles popetue — the last part of which 
is pure Muscogee. I think night-jars the best general 
name for the group. 
"Woodpecker" needs no explanation. In the Southern 
States the absurd rendering "peckerwood" obtains, and 
the giant of the class is called "logcock." "Sapcock" is a 
designation for ceriain smaller species, referring to the 
bird's iiabit of piercing the outer bark of trees in the 
spring to get at the bast and the sweet rising sap. "Car- 
pentcro" is the good general name of the tribe in Mexico. 
I have collected tweiuy-five or thirty local and widely 
varying appellations of the golden-winged woodpecker, 
showing huw striking and ubiquitous he is. One of these 
is "yellow-hammer," which at first glance would seem to 
be simply the yellow-hammerer. But this is the name in 
Great Britain of several small birds of yellow plumage, 
and comes directly from the Icelandic hainr, an ancient 
word allied to A. S. hama, meaning the skin — especially 
the skin of a bird flayed off with the feathers and wings 
attached; a mythical monster living in the North Sea, 
and having wings on its haunches, was known as fether- 
amr. Thus our "yellow-hammer" is "yellow wings," or 
at any rate "yellow hide." 
The Latin name of the woodpecker — picus — opens the 
way to a large exploration of both classical and Mediseval 
fancies. It is supposed to be derived from that vague old 
root whence we get the Sanskrit name of Ihe East Indian 
cuckoo — pika; the European pie (or pica), and the Latin 
spiza, a kind of sparrow, whence, perhaps, has descended 
the Italian parent of "finch," as lately discussed. In De 
Gubernalis's "Zoological Mythology," the whole subject 
may be found treated at length. The woodpecker was a 
phallic symbol, personified in King Picus, progenitor of 
the race. "The Latin legend puts picus in connection with 
picumnus, pilumnus, the pilum and the pistor. * * * 
In the Pjedmontese dialect the common name of the phal- 
los is piciii; in Italian, pinco and pincio have the same 
meaning; pincione is the chaffinch (in French pinson) ; 
and pincoiie means a fool." Ernest Ingersoll. 
[ It Sometimes Happens So. 
[ Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of January 7 an article by Spectator rela- 
tive to "not-shooting," reminds me of the old story of the 
French Count who, while a. guest of an English noble- 
man, shot a pheasant as it was about to jump through 
a hedge. In reply to the polite though rebuking query 
of his host as to whether he did not always shoot his 
birds on the wing, he said: "I shoot 'ein on ze wing, on 
ze tail, on ze head — anywheres." In my opinion, this whole 
controversy boils down to the question of whether the 
shooter is out for sport or meat. In the last case "pot- 
shooting" is always justifiable, for it is from this the word 
comes. 
I reiTiember some years ago I went on a shooting trip 
up in the northeast neck of this county. The old farmer 
and his son whom I was visiting dropped the farm work 
for the day and came out to show me the game. The old 
inan had a single muzzleloader of ancient pattern. Gene, 
the boy, had a 12-bore hammer gun with fore end action ; 
it was loose in every joint, and had not been cleaned for 
six years. . Gene had some shells loaded with three drams 
of black powder and an ounce of No. 8s, which were safe 
enough, but he insisted on having some of my heavy 
smokeless shells — live bird trap loads. I tried to explain 
that they would be unsafe in his gun, but he thought my 
interest in his gun was prompted through stinginess, 
though he didn't say so ; and it all ended by his helping 
himself to a bunch of shells out of my bag, at which time 
I firmly resolved to take a chance with his father and the 
muzzl-eloader. 
We started off first for some woodcock down in a little 
wet piece of alder thicket. It was a likely place, sheltered 
by a high bank, overgrown with evergreens, at the foot 
of which was a noisy brook, which, by the way, runs into 
Croton Lake. Gene took the center of the swamp, his 
father went on one side and I on the other. The dog — 
one I had borrowed- — knew his business, and picked out 
Gene as a good one to hunt with, though if his dog sense 
had given him the capacity of judging guns and ammuni- 
tion he might have hunted with me a while. Well, the 
boy had advanced not more than ten feet before two birds 
got up. Bang! went Gene's gun; and when he picked up 
the bird the three drams of black powder behind the 
ounce of No. 8s had picked up Miss Philohela at short 
range, and a buiach of feathers and skin was all there 
was left. Well, to cut this part of it short, we went 
throus'h that little thicket and Gene got seven more shots 
and killed six birds, never using his second barrel, and 
the old man over to the left got three shots and dropped 
two birds, and I never got a shot. 
We then worked off to the south after some partridges. 
We finally got into a swale which the old man said 
always had partridges in it. There were bunches of silver 
birches on the side hill and patches of laurel and springs 
surrounded by thick growths of alder and grasses. I 
jknew there was game there, and Gene, as usual, bucked 
-into the center of the growth, and I took the hillside, 
while Gene's pap had to take what there was left. 
Whir-r-bang ! \\*ih a special accent on the bang from 
Gene's direction. 
"Did you get him?" - 
"Get iiim ! Yes, but I blew the left barrel clean oflf my 
gun." 
"Come on out and let's see it," I called. 
"No, go on ; there are more birds here." 
"Did it hurt you. Gene?" inquired the old man from up 
ahead somewhere. 
. "No, only blew a piece of my thumb off." [Whir-r-r !] 
"Look out, Pop !" and the old muzzleloader spoke, and a 
big cock partridge fell to it. 
I had commenced to get a little discouraged, and won- 
dered if I was going to get a shot, when right then 
happened that which prompted this story. A big cock 
partridge- — he looked like a turkey to me — jumped or flew 
into the top of one of the alders ahead of Gene, who was 
binding up his thumb. He stretched out his neck at the 
dog, which had chased him up. There was a tree right 
ahead lining him up. "If he flies, you won't get a shot," 
my instinct told me. "Whir-r-r!" I called, and had him 
before he got nicely started. 
"Hey, boy !" shouted the old man, "you shot him in the 
tree!" 
"Tree nothing!" I retorted, "didn't you hear him fly?" 
But it didn't go ; so I had to own up. I made good 
later and got two more out of four shots, while Gene and 
his pop each missed several comparatively easy shots. 
This was small wonder, for the boy was shooting a badly 
bent right barrel, the left having a great hole in it, and his 
thumb was pretty badly mangled. He got a new gun 
a few weeks after — one that would shoot nitro powder; 
but the old man still sticks to his muzzleloader. 
• Chas. G. Blandford. 
Union v/hile on their way to their breeding grounds. And 
I trust that as an act of common justice and equity to the 
people of the country at large that this bill may pass in 
some form. 
The Shiras Bill 
Charlestown, N. H., Jan. jo.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: "A Happy New Year" to Forest and Stream, 
its writers and readers ! "Better late than never," but my 
eyes have been troubling me, and my poetic muse has 
deserted me, or if she calls to me, it is in the accents of 
the old hymn, 
"Remark my soul, the narrow bounds 
Of ttie revolving years." 
I have put off from day to day sundry comments on 
the various topics discussed in your columns, until the 
so-called Shiras Bill has waked me up to add my note of 
approval of it to those of the other game commissioners, 
and ex-commissioners, which you have already published, 
and I wish to do so most emphatically. Had not New 
Hampshire been so small a portion of the United States, 
and with so little migratory game, and that so well pro- 
tected by our local laws, I should have urged some such 
action on the part of our representatives in Congress long 
since; and now that it has been taken by Pennsylvania, 
I hope it may be carried through successfully. 
There is no doubt in my mind that the enormous de- 
crease in our supply of migratory wildfowl is due to a 
large extent to spring shooting, and that the only way 
to put an end to this is by the enactment of a national 
law which shall prohibit the shooting of all migratory 
birds on their way to their breeding grounds in the 
north, whether that be in our Northern States or in 
Canada or Alaska, and such prohibitory law should be en- 
forced by every marshal or other law officer of the United 
States. 
It should forbid all shooting of migratory wildfowl from 
the first of March to the date when such birds begin their 
return to their winter quarters in the south, whether 
that be August or October, according to the habits of the 
species. Plover, with us, begin their return in August, 
woodcock not until October, and what few ducks and 
geese we have, later still. 
Some of those who are not fully in favor of this bill 
still haggle over the old bugbear of "State rights," a 
specter which was pretty thoroughly laid at Appomattox, 
and which, so far as applied to our game, is a perfect fic- 
tion, for three-quarters nearly of' our States in number, 
and more than that in territory, never had any State 
rights at all, but were carved out of the Territories ac- 
quired and owned by the people of the whole Union after 
that was formed. It is all right to vest in each State 
the proprietorship, for the benefit of all its people, of such 
game as is born and bred in the State, and makes it a per- 
manent residence, but all wrong to permit the people of 
such States to shoot at their will migratory wildfowl 
which belong equally to the citizens of other parts of the 
Among other topics which have interested me in your 
columns the last season have been the notes on irrigation; 
and while I fully agree with Dr. Ambler that the first 
step to be taken is the preservation of our forests, I can- 
not help thinking, with Mr. Jaques, that we must even- 
tually come to some great system of irrigation to utilize 
liirge sections of our territory. What might appear to be 
visionary at first sight will be only a repetition of what 
nations now extinct did thousands of years ago, and if 
one will look into Sir Samuel Baker's "Eight Years' 
Wanderings in Ceylon," he will be astonished, if he is not 
informed on the subject," at his account of the enormous 
reservoirs or "tanks" which this ancient nation built in 
forgotten_ ages, _ some of them covering from 15 to 25- 
square miles, with their long canals and conduits runniiig 
aloiig the hillsides to convey the water to the plains be- 
low. So, too, in Egypt, the traveler sees the "Bahr el 
Yusuf," or Canal of Joseph, which furnishes water to the 
district of the "Fayoom," and which the natives tell him 
was built by the Joseph of Scripture, the great Hebrew 
Prime Minister of one of the Pharaohs ! 
I am no duck shooter, and do not feel called upon to 
comment on the ethics of duck shooting; but it amuses 
me to see a man who dees not know enough of wild life 
to know that the ruffed grouse drim-.s freely all through 
the autumn m.onths, undertake to criticise John Bur- 
loughs, as he did Rudyard Kipling a year ago. Charles 
Hallock is right on this question, as he always is; and 
further than this, the grouse does not always drum on a 
log, for I have both heard and seen him drum on a rock, 
though I nevei shot him while so doing. Neither does 
he strike his wings together behind his back ; they would 
not drum if he did, only rattle. The drum is produced 
by the compressed air beaten together by his wings and 
against his inflated breast. He makes no noise flying 
unless disturbed. 
I have spoken of the woodcock going south in October 
in New tiampshire; and as some persons in the Middle 
States claim that they go earlier, when they have merely 
retired to the woods during the moulting season, I wish 
to note that one of the most successful days among them 
I ever had was November i some forty years ago, when 
the flight was passing down through New Hampshire 
Von W. 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
Dei'artment of Fisheries anb G\me 
Boston, Mass., Jan. q.— Editor Forest and Stream • ' I 
find your letter addressed to our late chairman. Captain 
j. W. Collms, in reference to the bill introduced by Hon 
Geo Shiras 3d, to give Federal protection to wildfowl' 
Such a bill seems to the writer to be the sole feasible 
method of attaining a most highly desirable result It 
should receive the active support of all who are sincere 
in the desire to perpetuate the supply of such birds 
While the possible co-operation with the Canadian Gov- 
ernment upon a uniform bill along these Hues is hi«hlv 
desirable, I do not see that the absence of such an agree- 
ment should be any reason why we should not lake the 
mitiative in this matter. George W. Field, 
. Chairman. 
We have no o-fRce outside of New York. Address all 
communications to Forest and Stream Publishing Com- 
pony, 346 Broadway, New York, 
