Dec. 6, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
737 
Birds That Are Misnamed 
Here comes a black and white creeper! Yes, 
and yet no, because there is only one member of 
that family in this country and that is the brown 
creeper: the one mentioned is really the black 
and white creeping warbler. 
Then there is the robin—robin red-breast we 
often call him—that is not a robin at all, but a 
member of the thrush family! 
It is very interesting indeed to study birds 
and especially their names and find out how many 
misnomers there are and how often names are 
intermingled almost hopelessly. The brown 
thrasher is also called the red or brown thrush 
and yet it does not belong to the thrush family. 
The Canadian warbler is a true warbler and does 
not belong to the flycatcher family, as you might 
be led to believe from its name of Canadian fly¬ 
catcher that is so often given to it. The finch 
family is a large family and takes in many birds 
whose names might lead us to suppose that they 
belonged to entirely different families. Among 
those that might be mentioned are the cross-bills, 
grosbeaks, and sparrows. In this family also is 
the chewink, which is so often called .the ground 
robin. 
If you were told, when camping in the north¬ 
ern part of this country, that a venison-heron 
was spoiling some extra nice deer meat, and if 
you pictured to yourself a tall, wading bird with 
a sharp, dagger-like bill and an eye that “threw 
fire,” you would not hit the mark at all for the 
so-called venison heron is nothing in the world 
but the suuawking Canada jay, a near relation to 
our own pesky blue jay. 
Likewise, if you are told on some walk to 
keep your eyes opened for a rain crow, do not 
expect to hear a bird that says, “caw-caw-caw!” 
for what you will see will be a shy, black-billed 
cuckoo. And so we might go on almost in¬ 
definitely, finding out that the meadow lark is not 
a lark, but a member of the blackbird family, 
that the black-capped thrush is better known as 
the cat-bird, and so on, but perhaps one of the 
most curious combinations of names is that in¬ 
cluded in the wagtails, correctly or incorrectly 
named 
Tn the first place the American pipit or tit¬ 
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lark is the only well known member of the wag¬ 
tail family in most sections of this country, only 
three members inhabiting North America, and its 
other name of brown lark is decidedly mislead¬ 
ing; but under the name of wagtail, but not in 
the family except by misnaming are the aquatic 
wood wagtail or northern water thrush, which in 
turn is not a thrush at all but a warbler, and 
the golden-crowned wagtail, which is also a war¬ 
bler, better known under the name of oven-bird, 
teacher-bird and golden-crowned thrush. 
The Camp-Robber of The North 
That is what trappers and hunters call the 
Canada jay, and he well deserves the name, for 
there is hardly anything in camp that he will not 
steal if he is given half a chance. Meat arid 
fat seem to be what this saucy bird likes best, 
and many a duck and many a deer saddle have 
been spoiled by his tearing and pecking at it. 
Candles and grease, also, come in. for every at¬ 
tention possible. 
Because of his marauding the Canada jay is 
often called the meat-bird, moose-bird, grease 
bird and venison heron. There is still another 
name of whiskey-jack or whiskey-John given it 
by the lumbermen of the Adirondacks, but it 
means nothing as one might expect, being simply 
a corruption of a very curious Indian name of 
“Wis-ka-tjon,” that is often given to the bird as 
he boldly invades Indian wigwams and camps. 
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