EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
Those of our readers who are interested in primitive and local names of birds and in Ornithological Folk-Lore generally, may well consult an article written by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns in the last (December) number of the 'American Anthropologist,' entitled "Ornithological Vocabulary of the Moki Indians."
"The Mokis inhabit a region of country in longitude 109°, lying just west of the New Mexico-Arizona boundary, north-eastward from the Little Colorado river, and 65 miles south of the Colorado."
The revision of the zoological vocabulary of the Moki language, of which this paper forms the ornithological portion, was made by the author with the aid of an exceedingly intelligent Indian named Ongwischey, so that mistakes should be few and misinterpretations seldom. It will be observed that some of the Moki names are of Spanish origin: "The fact is, the Moki tongue has become impure from contact with Mexicans and halfbloods from some of the new Mexican pueblos, where Indians and Mexicans live together."
The Mokis show an excellent acquaintance with raptorial birds, and Capt. Bourke is quoted for the fact that "Eagles are still raised in cages in Picuris, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Zuñi, Acoma, and the villages of the Moquis farthest to the west."
The specific names with Moki equivalents are given for 230 birds, though of course some margin must be allowed for error; for, as the author cautiously remarks:—"Although more attentive to nature than most whites, it must be remembered that the Mokis are not ornithologists, and cannot be expected to name even all birds that have fallen under their observation, much less such as have never attracted their critical attention, or to discriminate between closely related species, or those which resemble one another in colour or form."
The Rev. H.A. Macpherson has contributed to the 'Annals of Scottish Natural History' an account of "The Distribution of the Red Grouse, Lagopus scoticus, and the Black Grouse, Lyrurus tetrix.[1]" The author writes:—"The Red and Black Grouse are both so plentiful upon the moors of the border counties of England and Scotland, that I have long expected to come across some additional instances of the well-known but
- ↑ * Macpherson, H.A. (1897). "On the Interbreeding of the Red Grouse (Lagopus Scoticus) and the Black Grouse (Lyrurus tetrix)". The Annals of Scottish Natural History 6 (21): 15–17. (external scan) (Wikisource-ed.)
