Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/358

334 a lost derivation), and the unshelled are "Malwidzharns," said to mean the naked garden thief. "Dzharn," of course, is garden, but I cannot make out the "Malwi." It is not, however, improbable that it is of the oldest of Old Cornish, at which our dictionaries do not much help us. — Thomas Cornish (Prussia Cove, Marazion, Penzance).

Bucks and Berks. — I have heard the following local names of animals used in the Thames Valley, on the borders of Bucks and Berks : —

Bat. The larger species, Rat-bat ; the smaller, Mouse-bat.

Sparrowhawk. Blue-hawk.

By this term the Sparrowhawk is probably always meant about here, though in Scotland the term is, I believe, generally applied to Harriers.

Fieldfare. Pigeon Felt.

Thrush. Thrusher.

Wagtail. Dish-washer.

Long-tailed Tit. Bottle-tit.

Swift. Devil.

Heron. Moll-heron.

Sandpiper. Summer Snipe.

Little Grebe. Dabchick ; Dabber.

Tern. Sea-swallow.

Wryneck. Cuckoo's Mate; Nile-bird.

About two springs ago I was told by one of our garden labourers that he had that morning seen a "Nile-bird " about in the garden, which a little cross- examination proved to be the "Cuckoo's Mate," but whether the term is in common use locallv I do not know.

Newt. Effett.

Lizard. Land Effett.

Bleak. Taylor.

Miller's-thumb. Todpole.

In distinction, apparently, to the genuine Tadpole.

I have also heard the Polecat, in West Cornwall, called "fitchew"; the Stoat, in Oxfordshire, called "royal hunter"; the Wood Owl, in Sussex, called "'ollering owl," from its cry. One bird — almost, if not quite, over the whole of the British Islands — changes its name according to the season of the year. People speak throughout the spring of hearing the "Corn Crake"; whereas in the shooting-season anyone lucky enough to be able to include one in his day's bag, almost invariably mentions it as a "Land- rail." — Alfred H. Cocks (Great Marlow, Bucks).