SS 3 -] 
Ingersoll on Common Names of American Birds. 
75 
The spotted plumage is expressed in the German name Spott- 
vogel or Shpotfogel as it is spelled in Pennsylvania. Indian 
names at my disposal are two : Yuswahaya (Florida Seminoles) ; 
and Tshitshikniin (Delawares). 
Galeoscoptes carolinensis , Cat-bird , was a name early and 
spontaneously decided upon for this Thrush, whose mewing note 
at once suggests it. Cat Flycatcher (Pennant), Merle Catbird , 
Chat (Canada), Katsafogel (Penna. Germ.) and Zorzal gato 
(Cuban), all ring changes upon this point; probably Bartram’s 
name Chicken-bird belongs to the same category. Color is 
designated in Blackbird \ Bermudas — where also it is properly 
called Mockingbird ), and in D’Orbigny’s French name Merle 
h derriere roux , — the Red vented Blackbird. 
The Harporhynchus rufus is a bird of many names suggested 
by more than one striking point in its character. Its strong color 
and mimicking voice gives us Fox-coloured Thrush (Bartram 
and others) ; Ferruginous Thrush (Wilson) or Ferruginous 
Mockingbird (Audubon) ; Rufous-tailed Thrush , Grive 
rouge (Canada), Sandy Mockingbird (Dist. of Col.), Brown 
or Red Thrush , Red Mavis (recalling an English songbird), 
and Brown Thrasher . 
The last of these ( Thrasher ) is perhaps the most often heard 
of all its names in the Northern and Middle States. The word is 
undoubtedly another derivative from the root of thrush just as 
the Swedish trast is ; or you may say that it came from the root 
of the verb to thresh (in Anglo-Saxon therscait) , the original 
meaning of which was to make a rattling noise, — one of the 
most prominent of the utterances of this garrulous bird. 
Its imitative powers have given it several names, such as two 
or three quoted above ; American Mockingbird (Wisconsin) ; 
French Mockingbird (Southern States — distinguishing from 
M. polyglottus ) ; Carolina Mockingbird , and so on. In the 
name Corn-planter (New Jersey and Massachusetts) we have 
a recognition of the time of its appearance in the spring, when 
the maize-seed is being put into the ground. “While you are 
planting your seed,” says Thoreau, “he cries — ‘Drop it, drop it — 
cover it up, cover it up — pull it up, pull it up, pull it up.’” 
Cinceus Mexicanus. The notable habits and waterside 
haunts of Cinclus mexicanus , together with its affinity to the 
Thrushes, have given it the name “ Water Ouzel f for ouzel (or 
