Ill 
The Honey-eaters : The Blight-bird 
an example of English nomenclature as opposed to French, 
the English name being given from the appearance of the bird, 
the French name, traquet, from the sound of its call, chacke , 
chacke. The French name for the white-ear, however, appears 
to be cul-blanc, which is certainly more directly descriptive than 
the English name; traquet would appear to be the name of the 
stone-chat. Other names describe the habits of the bird, such 
as the fly-catcher, whose names in Danish, German, and French 
are fluesnapper, fliegenfanger, and gobeur de mouches, or 
gobe-mouches, being exactly similar in signification fly- 
snapper being most truly descriptive. In instances such as 
this it is a question as to whether all the names arose inde¬ 
pendently from observation of the same fact, or whether one 
nation has adopted the name given by another. The wagtail 
is vipstjert in Danish, a name with the same meaning as the 
English word, but bach-stelze, brookstilt, in German; the tail 
is the feature noted in the French name hoche-queue, notched- 
tail. The linnet, so named because of its fondness for lint- 
seed, is linot in French, and flachs-fink, flax-finch, in German. 
The missel-bird, or missel-thrush, or mistletoe-thrush, is mistel- 
drossel in Danish and German, and grosse grive de gui,—a 
great mistletoe-thrush, in French. It receives its name from its 
feeding on the berries of the missel, or mistletoe. Mudie (MF, 
Yol. 1, p. 270) writes—“There is a sort of double naming in 
this bird; it is called the missel-thrush because it ‘missels’ 
(soils) its toes with the viscid slimy juice of the mistletoe 
berries, of which it is very fond in the winter; and the mistle¬ 
toe gets its name because it ‘soils’ the toes of the bird. 
“Soiling” is again euphemism; but the whole explanation is 
fable. 
Once a name is given, it again forms the basis of compound 
names—titlark, woodlark, skylark, etc.; and so the Maori 
has kaka, the brown parrot, named from its harsh cry; and 
with kaka as basis, there are kakariki, the green parrot, 
parrokeet; kakapo, the night parrot. The mountain panot, 
however, is named after its peculiar cry, kea, a word which 
should probably be spelt kia, as that is distinctly the sound of 
