Love's Meinie Part 12

Cinclus Aquaticus. G. and Y.

Water Ouzel. B.

t.u.r.dus Cinclus, Pennant; Common Dipper, Y.; Didapper, Doucker, Water Crow, Water Piot, B.; Cincle Plongeur, Temminck; Wa.s.ser Trostel, Swiss.

The scientific full arrangement, according to Yarrell, is thus:--

1. Order--INSESSORES.

2. Tribe--Dentirostres.

3. Genus--Merulidae.

4. Species--Cinclus.

5. Individual--Aquaticus.

You will please observe that some of the scientific people call it a blackbird--some a thrush--some a starling--and the rest a Cincle, whatever that may be. It remains for them now only to show how the Cincle has been developed out of the Winkle, and the Winkle out of the Quangle-w.a.n.gle. You will note also that the Yorkshire and Durham mind is balanced between the two views of its being a crow or a magpie. I am content myself to be in harmony with France and Italy, in my 'Merula,'

and with Germany in my _Torrent_-Ouzel. Their 'bach' (as in Staubbach, Giesbach, Reichenbach) being essentially a mountain waterfall; and their 'amsel,' as our Damsel, merely the Teutonic form of the Demoiselle or Domicilla--'House-Ouzel,' as it were, (said of a nice girl)--Domicilla again being, I think, merely the transposition of Ancilla Domini,--Behold, the handmaid of the Lord: (see frontispiece to third volume of 'Modern Painters') which, if young ladies in general were to embroider on their girdles--though their dresses, fitting at present 'as close as a glove' (see description of modern American ideal in 'A Fair Barbarian') do not usually require girdles either for their keys or their manners,--it would probably be thought irreverent by modern clergymen; but if the demoiselle were none the better for it, she _could_ certainly be none the worse.

149. ALLEGRETTA NYMPHaeA. LILY-OUZEL.

Var. 1 (IX.A.)

ALLEGRETTA NYMPHaeA, MACULATA. SPOTTED ALLEGRET.

Rallus Porzana. L.

Poule d'Eau Maronette. F.

Winkernell. T.

Porzana. I.

Zap.o.r.nia Porzana. G.

Crex Porzana. Y.

Ortygometra Porzana. Steph.

Gallinula Maculata et Punctata. Brehmen.

Spotted Crake. B.

The 'Winkernell' is I believe provincial (Alsace); so, Girardina, Milanese, and Girardine, Picard.--I can make nothing whatever of any of these names;--Porzana, Bolognese and Venetian, might perhaps mean Piggy-bird; and Ortygometra Porzana would then mean, in serious English, the 'Quail-sized Pig-bird.' I am sorry not to be able to do better as Interpreter for my scientific friends.

IX.B.

ALLEGRETTA NYMPHaeA, STELLARIS. STARRY ALLEGRET.

Not separated by Linnaeus, or Buffon, or Bewick, nor by popular German or French names, from the Marouette.

Crex Baillonii, Baillon's Crake. Y.

Porzana Pygmaea. G.

Gallinula Stellaris. Temminck.

IX.C.

ALLEGRETTA NYMPHaeA, MINUTA. TINY ALLEGRET.

Porzana Minuta, Olivaceous Crake. G.

Crex Pusilla, Little Crake. Y.

Poule d'Eau Poussin. Temminck.

Little Gallinule. B.

It never occurred to me, when I was writing of cla.s.sical landscape, that 'Poussin' to a French ear conveyed the idea of 'chicken,' or of the young of birds in general. (Is it from 'pousser,' as if they were a kind of budding of bird?) Everybody seems to agree in feeling that this is a kind of wren among the dabchicks. Bewick's name, 'Little Gallinule,' meaning of course, if he knew it, the twice-over little Gallina;--and here again the question occurs to me about its voice. Is it a twice-over little crow, called a 'creak,' or anything like the Rail's more provokingly continuous objurgation?--compare notes below on Rallus Aquaticus. I find, with some alarm, in Buffon, that one with a longer tail, the Cau-rale or Tail-rail of Cayenne, is there called 'Little Peac.o.c.k of the Roses;' but its cry is represented by the liquid syllables 'Piolo,' while the black-spotted one of the Society Islands--Magellan's 'Water-quail'--says 'Poo-a-nee,' and the Bidi-bidi of Jamaica says 'Bidi-bidi.'

X.

150. TREPIDA STAGNARUM. LITTLE GREBE.

Colymbus Minor. L.

Le Castagneux. F.

Deutchel. T.

Tropazarola? I.

Podiceps Minor. C.

Little Grebe. B.

The Yorkshire accents and changes of its name are given by Bewick: Dobchick--small doucker; Dipper, or Didapper.

In Barbadoes--Two-penny chick.

It seems to me curious that without knowing Buffon's name, which I have only looked up now, 'the Chestnutty,' given from the brown on its back, I should have, myself, always called its foot 'chestnutty,' from the shape of its lobes.

My 'Trepida' will do well enough, I think, for a Latin rendering of Grebe, and will include the whole group of them,--'stagnarum' remaining for this species only, and the others being called Tippeted Trepids, or m.u.f.fed Trepids, Eared Trepids or Majestic Trepids, as I find out what they wear, and how they behave. Grebe is used by Buffon only for the larger ones, and Castagneux for the smaller, which is absurd enough, unless the smaller are also the browner.

But I find in Buffon some interesting particulars not given in my text--namely, that the whole group differs from common chicks, not only in the lobed feet, but in these being set so far back, (becoming almost a fish's tail indeed, rather than a bird's legs,) that they are quite useless for walking, and could support the bird only on land if it stood upright: but that it "dashes through the waves" (i.e., the larger varieties through sea waves), and "runs on the surface"? (i.e., the smaller varieties on pools,) with surprising rapidity; its motions are said to be never quicker and brisker than when under water. It pursues the fish to a very great depth, and is often caught in fishermen's nets. It dives deeper than the scoter duck, which is taken only on beds of sh.e.l.lfish left bare by the ebb-tide; while the Grebes are taken in the open sea, often at more than twenty feet depth.

XI.

151. t.i.tANIA ARCTICA. ARCTIC FAIRY.

Tringa Fulicaria. L.

(No French name given in my edition of Buffon!) No German, anywhere.

No Italian, anywhere.

But of suggestions by scientific authors, here are enough to choose from:--

Lobipes Hyperboreus, G. Lobipes Hyperborea, Selby. Phalaropus Hyperboreus, Penn. Phalarope Hyperbore, Temm. Phalaropus Fulicaria, Mont. Phalaropus Fuscus, Bewick. Phalaropus Rufescens, Briss. Red Coot-footed Tringa, Edw. Red-necked Phalarope, Gould. Lobe-foot, Selby.

Coot-foot, Fleming.

I am a little shocked at my own choice of name in this case, not quite pleasing my imagination with the idea of a Coot-footed Fairy. But since Athena herself thinks it no disgrace to take for disguise the likeness either of a sea-gull or a swallow, a sea-fairy may certainly be thought of as condescending to appear with a diving bird's foot; and the rather that, if one may judge by painters' efforts to give us sight of Fairyland, the general character of its inhabitants is more that of earthly or marine goblins than aerial ones.

Now this is strange! At the last moment, I find this sentence in Gould's introduction: "The generic terms Phalaropus and Lobipes have been inst.i.tuted for the _fairy-like_ phalaropes."

XI.A.

t.i.tANIA INCONSTANS. CHANGEFUL FAIRY.