74 
Ingersoll on Common Names of American Birds. 
[April 
States, however, the bird’s resemblance to the Tardus pilaris of 
Europe came strongly to the mind of the early writers. Hence 
one finds in old books like those of Brickell, Lawson, Catesby 
and so on, that it is most often spoken of as the Field-fair , Field- 
fear, or Fieldfare ; of these the last is the proper spelling, and 
means one who travels or fares in the fields ; the name is yet 
heard occasionally. 
More distinct recognition of the bird as a Thrush , together 
with its two striking characteristics — red breast and migratory 
conduct — gives us : Red-breasted Thrush , Merle* ou Rouge 
gorge dti Canada , Migratory Thrush , Merle erratique , Robin 
Thrush , Grive de Canada , Omshel (Pennsylvania German — 
a corruption of Amsel , “Thrush”). 
I have been able to collect many Indian names (untranslated) 
for this bird, the Ojibway and Navajo words seeming onomato- 
poeic : Opeechee or Pechee (Ojibway), Kailee che (Navajo — 
note resemblance to preceding!), Ispokwah (Creek), yiskoko 
(Iroquois), Chauncobshah (Assiniboine) . The Ojibways had 
very pretty legends connected with the Robin, making it a bearer 
of tidings from supernal sources, and so forth. 
Nothing more calls for special mention until we come to Mimus 
polyglottus. Like its Latin name in both parts, its English and 
French appellations chiefly refer to its remarkable powers of 
mimicry, and date far back, for this was one of the most striking 
of our birds to the new comers. Thus, in the “Collections of the 
American Antiquarian Society,” IV, 24: “ Ar tamo ekes , a bird 
that imitateth and useth the sounds and tones of almost all birds 
in the Countrie.” We have Mi?nic Thrush , Mockbird , Mock- 
ingbird , Moquer or La Merle moquer , and English Mocking- 
bird (to distinguish it from the “French” Mockingbirds of the 
Southern States — chiefly Harporhynchus rufus). Its sweet- 
ness of voice apart from mimicry, and its habit of singing fre- 
quently after sunset or in the moonlight, caused it to be called in 
the English West Indies, Nightingale , and in the other islands 
Rosignol. This last word is only a modification of Rosignor, or 
Lord of the Rose — the Spanish name of the Nightingale ; it is 
probably of Moorish descent, and has been applied to other 
American birds as well as this. The Mexican (west coast) name 
— , Sinsonte , is also in allusion to the bird’s voice. 
* Merle , “Blackbird," is the French form of the Latin generic word Merula. 
