158 
NATURE NOTES. 
From the Rev. G. C. Green, Ivybridge, South Devon : — 
Hickmal or Hickymall ... 
Tiddletope 
*Gray bird ... 
Hoop 
Blue tit, Great tit, Marsh tit, or 
Cole tit 
Wren 
Either Song Thrush or Redwing 
Bullfinch 
“ This name was the only name by which this bird was known to the common 
people about here until within the last thirty years. I have an old churchwarden’s 
book of two hundred years old or more in which there constantly appears the entry 
of money paid for Hoops’ heads during the last century and earlier.” 
Miss Isabel Fry writes : — 
“ A member of the Bayswater Branch of the Selborne Society informs me that 
the Peewit in Ireland is called by the country people 1 Phillip a weeke.’ 
E. H. writes : — 
“ Board Schools will prove the destruction of so many interesting local forms 
of speech and nomenclature that the suggestion of recording in Nature Notes 
some still surviving peculiar names of animals and plants seems very valuable. 
“ The Hampshire 1 Blood-lark ’ resembles the Leicestershire ‘ Scriveling-lark ’ 
(the Yellow-hammer), not only in not being a lark at all, but also in the name 
being given with reference to the eggs, which in the case of the ‘ Scriveling-lark ’ 
look as if they were scribbled over by the finest of steel pens. The bird itself, 
apart from its eggs, is (or rather was) known as the Goldfinch ; while the Gold- 
finch itself was called the ‘ Proud Tailor ’ (pronounced ‘ teeler ’). 
“ The Swift was always the ‘ Deviling,’ and was mysteriously spoken of as 
‘ one of the Seven Whistlers.’ Other Leicestershire names were — 
Whinchat ... ... ... ... Utick 
Green woodpecker ... ... Roin (or rind) tabberer, Rain- 
bird or Wood spite 
“ I cannot identify the various ‘jugs ’ ; Bank-jug, Hedge-jug, and Bottle-jug, 
but the name referred to the form of the nest.” 
N. S. W. writes : — 
“ In Gloucestershire the Longtailed Titmouse is called a ‘ Mum-ruffin ’ ; the 
Hedge-sparrow a Blue Isook ( ? Isaac)f — can any of your readers tell me why? The 
reason for the Chaffinch being called a Twink one can see, or rather hear, for he 
says ‘ Twink ’ continually.” 
[In the article in our last number on “English Plant Names,” the following 
initials were wrongly given : — Miss N. J. Ileelis ought to have been Miss A. J. 
Heelis, and Mr. T. G. Ward ought to have been Mr. H. G. Ward. The names 
from Craven in Yorkshire were sent by Miss Isabel Brown.] 
+ Mr. Swainson gives “Blue Isaac” for Gloucestershire; “Isaac,” or 
“ Hazook ” for Worcestershire, and “ Segge ” for Devon. These names, he 
says, “are from the Old English heisugge — see Chaucer, ‘ Assemblie of 
Fowles,’ 612, where the cuckoo is called the 
‘ Murdrer of the heysugge on the braunch 
That brought thee forth.’” 
