Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/133

Rh sent to me for examination. Its remains have been mounted for Mr. T.J. Wallace, of Richmond, who shot the bird near Northallerton, Yorkshire. During the last two months we have been visited by large flocks of Common Scoters, and small companies of Scaup and Long-tailed Ducks; I have handled four immature specimens of the last named species. Many Little Auks and Puffins have been picked up dead or in an exhausted condition during the past few weeks.— (Redcar, Yorks).

The Origin and Meaning of the Names of British Birds.—Referring to Mr. Meiklejohn's communication on this subject (ante, p. 72), it does not seem to be by any means certain that there is any real connection between poke (=to thrust) and poke or poche (=a bag), whence we probably get poacher. Mr. H.T. Wharton stated that "Pochard is the bird that 'poaches,' that is, treads into the mire, as cattle do" (Zool. 1882, p. 446). We use the word "poach" in this sense in Oxon; and I have heard a word potch used to denote a falling into anything with a splash. Thus you may go potch into a puddle or a boggy place. I do not know if this is anything more than a slang word, but it is expressive. It is just possible (if this is an old word) that the Pochard may have been thought to potch into the water more than some other kinds of ducks. A bunch of Pochards certainly do make a great splash sometimes when they alight. But I do not wish to press this idea. It does not run in with "Poker." I am curious to know the ground for the suggestion that the name Pochard at first referred to the Wigeon (Zool. 1900, p. 514). By none of the early authors to whose works I have been able to refer is the Wigeon called Pochard, although the Pochard has been called Red-headed Wigeon. Unless Mr. Meiklejohn can show that the Welsh Gwilym (=a Guillemot) is the same word as the Welsh Gwylan (=a Gull; Breton gwelan, goulen, or goelann; Cornish guilan or gullan)—which is not likely—he will find it difficult to sustain his contention that the guille in Guillemot is the same word as gull. Ray (1674) has Guilliam for Guillemot; and Martin (1698) says that this bird is called "by the Welch a Guillem." Prof. Newton calls attention to the resemblance between the French Guillemot and Guillaume, and between the English "Willock" (a local name for the Guillemot) and William. Whether Guillemot is a French manufactured word or not, the first part of it at all events is undoubtedly cognate with, if not derived from, the Welsh Gwilym. It does not seem reasonable to suppose that the French called the Guillemot a "gull-gull," which would be the meaning of a Celtic-Teutonic compound of gwelan+mouette or goeland+mouette. I think that Nuthatch really does Nut-cracker (in the sense of Nut breaker). Hack (hak) means to cut, chop, or mangle. You cannot properly be said to hack a thing unless you cut into it, indent it, break it, or break a part off it. To "hack at" (p. 73) may be quite another thing. A bird may "hack at a nut, which may