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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xn. NOV. 27, im

his terms employed in describing the quality of the impressions may be relied upon. Among them is the somewhat ambiguous one " presque unique.' 1 T. D. also offers his services in executing commissions at the sale, giving his address " at Mr. Falser' s, No. 67, Fleet Street." He contributes a note on

Ep. 126-7 eulogistic of Hogarth, signed with is initials ; and on p. 68, at the beginning of the fifth day's sale, has another note with his surname in full, " T. Dodd.' 1

E. P. MERRITT. Boston, U.S.A.

WHEATEAR (10 S. xii. 329). The correct etymology is given in Palmer's ' Folk- Etymology ' (1882), and (independently) in Davies's ' Supplementary English Glossary ' (1881). It is also in 'The Century Dictionary.' The extract from Fuller's ' Worthies of England,' ii. 382, shows that the old name was wheatears, and that it has lost an s, which was mistaken as the form of a plural (as in sherry, cherry, shay for chaise, Chinee, &c.). Wheat represents a pronunciation of white, and a more correct form would be whitears, to be divided after the e. This etymology was known to Smollett, who (see Davies) notes that wheat-ears is " a corruption [really a variant pronunciation] of white-a e, the transla- tion [rather, the equivalent] of their French name cul-blanc " (' Travels,'- Letter III.).

Swainson, in his ' Provincial Names of British Birds,' p. 9, says :

"So called from the pure white colour of the base and lower portion of the side of the tail ; whence also the names ivhite tail, ivhite rump (Norfolk), whiteass (Cornwall)."

The last spelling exhibits an attempt at impressing the eye with a more polite form. Cotgrave has : " Culblanc, the bird called a whittaile, ?? i.e. white tail.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

Mr. Arthur Beckett in his book ' The Spirit of the Downs l says :

" Its south-country name was supposed to come from its alleged habit of feeding on ears of wheat, but the idea of wheat forming any part of its food

has long since been exploded But, as its actual

markings show, the real origin is due to the Anglo- Saxon equivalent of ' white-rump,' of which ' wheat- ear ' is thought to be a modern derivation, though it is considered by some authorities to be a corrup- tion of ' whitterer,' i.e., ' twitterer.'"

I have elsewhere seen the Anglo-Saxon equivalent stated to be whit-erse. There is much more about these birds in the book quoted. G. S. PARRY, Lieut. -Col.

de Gardens, Eastbourne.

Mr. Swainson would have us believe that the bird is so called from " the pure white^ colour of the base and lower portion of the side of the tail.* 1 He cites John Taylor the Water Poet, who expatiated on the gastronomic graces of the bird, and was, as Mr. Swainson thought, not quite correct about the meaning of its name :

There were rare birds I never saw before, The like of them I think to see no more : Th' are called wheat-ears, less than lark or sparrow, Well roasted, in the mouth they taste like marrow. When once 'tis in the teeth it is inyolv'd, Bones, flesh, and all is lusciously dissolv'd. The name of wheat-ears, on them is ycleped Because they come when wheat is yearly reaped, Six weeks, or thereabouts, they are catch'd there, And are well nigh 11 months, God knows where. ' Works,' ed. Hindley, 1872.

See Swainson's ' Provincial Names of British Birds,' pp. 9, 10.

Bardsley attributes the surname Whittear y Whittier, and variants, to the occupation of " ' the white tawer ' or tower, one who- dressed the lighter kid skins for the glover n (' Diet, of English and Welsh Surnames ').

ST. S WITHIN.

I have pointed out in my little volume ' The Folk and their Word-lore ' (Routledge 1904) that wheat-ear is a fictitious singular of white-ears, whit-ers, i.e. " white-tail,"' having synonyms in other languages. So- far back|as 1882 I showed this, with many illustrative quotations, in my ' Folk-Ety- mology,' p. 433. A. SMYTHE PALMER.

South Woodford.

Wheatear, of course, is a corruption. For a similar metamorphosis see a communica- tion on " Neither my eye nor my elbow " at 10 S. viii. 137. SUSSEX.

[MR. TOM JONES, H. P. L, MR. DOUGLAS OWEN, and T. M. W. thanked for replies. ]

COWPER : PRONUNCIATION OF HIS NAME (10 S. xii. 265, 335, 372). There is a proof that the poet's family name was pronounced " Cooper ?i at least before he was born, which seems to have been overlooked, though it is cogent, and may have suggested his- own " jocose presumption n that a fore- father had migrated to England from Cupar, in Scotland, When Lord Cowper, the poet's great -uncle, was presiding, in 1715, at the trial of Lord Wintoun for his share- in the Rebellion of that year, the prisoner, a man of weak mind, but a certain amount of shrewdness, asked him to do him justice, and not to use what, in Scotland, used to be called " Cowper (Cupar) law, hang a man first, and then judge him.' 4