Ingersoll on Common Names of American Birds. 
[April 
ousel ) is an old English word for Thrush, allied to the German 
amsel. Many European names exist, and we have imported 
one, Differ ; this simply means “diver,” coming directly from 
the same root. Its small size and lively manner gives it the 
names Water Wren in Colorado, and (adding its brilliant song) 
Water Oriole on the Northwest Coast. Among the miners of 
Nevada it figures as Water Turkey , a term having as much 
sense as that of “ Winter Geese” given by the Nahant people to 
the Snow Bunting. 
The next names worthy of notice are those of the Par idee. 
Tit originally signified something small ; by itself it stood as a 
name of a small bird. But our word is confounded with the 
Angle-Saxon mdse , the name of several sorts of little birds in 
that language. It has no connection with “mouse,” which comes 
from a different root ; therefore its plural should not be titmice, 
which involves this error, but titmouses. The root of mdse 
signifies “ to diminish,” and hence the latter part of the name, 
as well as the former, refers to the small size of the birds — 
about the smallest, indeed, with which northern nations are pop- 
ularly acquainted. Tomtit is an affectionate nickname suggested 
by alliteration, like Tom Thumb. 
The local American names of our Titmouses call for short 
mention. Lofhofhanes bicolor is the Tufted or Crested Tit or 
Titmouse, for obvious reasons. Thomas Nuttall designated it 
Peto — I suppose after its note ; and Mr. E. A. Small writes me 
that in Western Maryland it is called Peter-bird ; also Storm- 
bird and Sf ring-bird, explaining that “ its notes are generally 
heard in damp weather in the spring and late winter.” No 
explanation is required for the word Chickadee belonging to 
several species of Par us, for anyone who has ever heard its 
“ Saucy note 
Out of sound heart and merry throat.” 
An allied species of the West, Aurifarus favicefs, is known 
as the Yellow-headed Titmouse (or in Mexican Paro amarillo') 
and Verdin, meaning “ greenlet.” In Texas its yellow-daubed 
head has won it the name Fat-eater ; while the Mexicans there 
seek to imitate its voice in Pitachoche. 
This brings me to the Sittidce or Nuthatches — birds that 
“hack” or “cut” nuts, perpetuating an error so far as this family 
