240 
NATURE NOTES. 
The word means — ah, what does it not mean ? It cannot be said in English. It 
expresses all the tender love and longing which a poet would seek to convey in 
a modiiiha, and a lover sings under the window of his fair one. As for “ cocoa,” 
with all due deference, I hope to be permitted to retain the old-fashioned ortho- 
graphy. “ Coco de Mer,” the strange nut of the Seychelles, is certainly correct. 
But why is Skeat’s dictionary to be improved upon, or ignored ? there I read, 
“Cocoa — the cocoanut palm tree,” and on another page, “Spanish — coco — a 
bugbear, an ugly mask, &c., hence applied to the Cocoanut on account of the 
monkey-like face at the base of the nut.” I scarce dare to add, that when 
“ coco ” nut appears in my grocer’s books, I always correct the spelling and put 
in the “ a.” 
November 6, 1895. E. V. B. 
[We print E. V. B.’s expostulation with pleasure, and with a word or two of 
comment. We know the ways of printers well, but the names we cited were 
surely seen in proof? and although we are glad our guess at “saudades” proved 
correct, is it wise to use so unfamiliar a name without adding something to 
identify it ? As to “ coco,” we venture to quote Dr. Murray’s great dictionary even 
against Professor Skeat’s, and the former says : “ Coco remained the established 
spelling in the i8th century till the publication of Johnson’s Dictionary, in which the 
article coco was (apparently by some accident, for Johnson in his own writings used 
coco) run together with the article cocoa {=cacao) ; this gave currency to a confusion 
between the two words which still prevails, although careful writers have never 
ceased to use the correct form coco.” One result of the confusion is that folk 
think the coco-palm and the Theobroma are one and the same thing, and the use 
of the term coco-nut helps to correct this. Dr. Murray says that, with the same 
object in view, coker-nut “ has long been in commercial use at the port of London 
to avoid the ambiguity of cocoa.” — Ed. N.N.'\ 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Gower and. its Birds (p.218). — I think J. U. Voss will be interested to know 
that for several years a nightingale made its appearance in the garden of the late 
Mr. S. Benson, and that many of the inhabitants of the peninsula walked miles 
to hear it sing. I have lived in several parts of England, but I do not know a 
place where cuckoos were more plentiful. I have often seen two or three on 
our lawn, and once I was fortunate enough to find an ugly youngster in a hedge- 
sparrow’s nest, near our vicarage gate at Llanrhedian. Gower is indeed “ a 
paradise of bird life,” and could furnish a list of birds which I think would 
surprise many of the readers of Nature Notes. I can well remember the 
appearance of three white starlings, a pair of Cornish choughs, and an Egyptian 
spoonbill. 
Wales Vicarage, Sheffield. Gvvyn Rees. 
It may interest J. U. Voss to know that the cuckoo is found in great numbers 
in a little village close to the sea, lying opposite to the Gower coast in South 
Wales. As a matter of fact, during the “ cuckoo season ” it is almost an impossi- 
bility to sleep owing to their incessant “ cuckooings” all through the night ; and 
I myself have passed many a sleepless night through them. Although a small 
village it teems with bird-life, and I have seen many birds which are rare in other 
places — one hoopoe, which was unfortunately shot as a specimen. The night-jar 
is also there in great numbers, and it was a great delight to me to listen to their 
peculiar chur-r-r late into the evenings. Several times I heard a night-lark, 
whose song seems to me exactly like that of the nightingale— it is most exquisite, 
and one listens enraptured ! I should be interested to know whether any of 
your readers have heard it in many other localities, as the village I am speaking 
of is the only place where I have heard it. I have only heard the goat-sucker 
once in this locality (which is about sixteen miles from the village where there 
are so many), and that was in July last; but as I seldom go out in the evening 
