Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/392

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. MAY 12, 1900.

" What 's in a Name ? | or | By Commander Scott Willcox, R.N." The inside cover has the legend :

What 's in a name ?

A Tit when called a Huck-Muck ;

Sings the same !

The actual title-page, a rather lengthy one, runs as follows :

"The | Egg Collector's | lHandy Dictionary | of British Birds, | containing more than 1,000 Curious Local Names ; together | with the generally accepted Names and also the Scientific | Names of our British Birds. | To which are added Lists of those Birds which occasionally | Nest with us, and whose Eggs are rare ; | and also | of those Birds who are only Winter Visitors and have | never been known to Breed in the United Kingdom, and | whose Eggs are very Rare. By | Commander Scott Willcox, R.N., | ' Rangitoto,' Shaftesbury Road, Southsea. paper covers, Sixpence ; post free 7W. I 1894 | Printed & Published by | Holbrook & Son, 154-155, Queen Street, Portsmouth."
 * Reference | for | Curious Local Names of our |
 * One Shilling (bound in Cloth ; post free 1/3). J In

G. YARROW BALDOCK.

Many thanks to MR. BALDOCK. MR. CRAWLEY'S opportune "mime thrush" fixes the meaning of "gizer." Now we want to know, why Norman 1 The " pink, pink, pink," followed by a derisively flourishing chuckle, is, undoubtedly, the note of the rowdy " oxeye." The blue-tit is a quieter and more lovable little bird. The mavis and the merle are the thrush and blackbird through- out the Keltic-speaking countries. Let us not forget Shakespeare's

Ousel cock, so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill.

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

Not "craggy heron," as MR. CRAWLEY quotes, but craigy heron, i.e., the long-necked heron, from the Scots craig, the neck.

HERBERT MAXWELL.

LYDDITE (9 th S. v. 185, 234). Lyddite re- ceives its name not from the place of its manufacture it is merely picric acid melted and poured into the projectile to solidify- but from the place where the trials of it took place. Lydd is used as an artillery practice ground for guns of position. Lyddite was first used on active service at the capture of Omdurman by Lord Kitchener of Khartoum. The effects of it may be seen in an interesting series of photographs in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution.

THOS. C. MARTIN.

"FEBRUARY FILL-DYKE" (9 th S. v. 188, 277). I have heard this old proverbial saying quoted in the following connexion, in the month of February of several years, by a

lady of my acquaintance, born (c. 1830) and bred in Northamptonshire, who probably learnt it in childhood from her father or mother, both of whom were, I believe, natives of the same county, and long resided therein :

February fills the dykes ;

March winds blow the organ-pipes.

This lady is, I may add, the one referred to in my reply to the query on ' Lincolnshire Sayings' ("As black as the devil's nutting- bag ") in a recent issue of * N. & Q.'

W. I. R. V.

I have heard the following rime, but cannot at present locate its source : February fill dyke Either with the black or white ; A Welshman would rather see his dam on her bier Than that he would see a fair Februeer.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

VICE-ADMIRAL (9 th S. v. 149, 252, 325). Sir Sherstan Baker, Bart., in his work 'The Office of Vice-Admiral of the Coast, being some Account of that Ancient Office' (pri- vately printed), gives as late as 1854 a list of appointments as Vice-Admiral of the Coast to nine counties. E. H. C.

BlBURY (9* h S. iv. 108, 172, 295, 331, 524). It seems that in Domesday Bibury had a hun- dred all to itself, and under Ched worth, held then as a manor by Count Boger of Bellomont, the separate manor of Alvred- intune was thereto attached as one tenure in the so-called Begeberie hundred. Rudder does not trace this Alvredintune, but I fancy it is now called Ablington, still a hamlet of Bibury. Assistance from any Gloucestershire expert will oblige. A. HALL.

"BATSUEINS" (9 th S. v. 288)J3atsuein is the Anglo-French (Norman) spelling of the modern E. boatswain, familiarly pronounced bo'sun. The "A.-S. batswegen" with the second e short, is not a true native word, but a late borrowing from the Old Norse bdtsweinn (Icel. bdtsveinn). It is not given in Bosworth's 'A.-S. Dictionary,' nor even in the 'H.E.D.'; but it occurs in the Leofric Missal (at fol. 1, back, of MS. Bodley, 579), in a passage quoted at length in Earle's 'Land Charters,' p. 254. The a was doubt- less sometimes shortened in this compound on account of the strong combination of consonants (tsw) that followed it, just as we have Acton in the sense of " oak-town," &c.

The u is written for w, but ei is correct. In the A.-S. form ege represents the same sound (that of ei in vein), the g being a mere glide, and the second e being added merely as a