The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-01-21
ONONIAYOPEIA,
How Birds and Animals Get Their Strange
Rnd Curious Samcs, According to Their
Chnract tcristtrs.

| ant anu dcNolu Ol care, says the Pitts.
burg Dj$pdtch. Before Eve was made,
and the consequent trouble came upon
Adam, he sccmingiy had very little to
do beyond cat, sleep, and enjoy the
scenery. But little investigation
shows that he had Il job laid out for him
which must have taxed his ingenuity to
IFS utmost. Genesis H.. 1920 says that
the animals were all passed in review
before him to see what he would call
them. Eve Was at this time yet attached
to his spinal column and could not as
SiSt at the work. She would have
| Il%htcncd his labor very much, as wo-
men are very expert 1T calling names
usually.
Being not much acquainted with the
habits Of his animal compatriots, he
must have had difficulty in giving them
suitable names indeed, in giving them
any names whatever. The difficulty
may be appreciated by any onc-cvcn
with our present knowlcdgc of the ami
NAL kmgdOm--Wh will Cndcavor to re-
cito the wcll-known names of our most
common animals. If one will try to re-
| peat the names OF forty animals he will
find it takes him four or five minutes.
Think what task it was to not only re-
! peat but invent names for all the animals,
! the birds, fishes, and reptiles.
What he called them will never he
! known, because we do not know what
language he spoke. We have our En-
glISh names for all animalS--that is, all
OF the more common ones. SCmc of
them have no names with us except the
Latin scientific one by which they are
known by naturaliSS.
just how objects get names is an i'm.
| tcrH>tmg thing 20 trace. Among ami
mails and plants th" scientific name is
! easy enough to account FOR because men
who study the classification and az
rAnG"mrHt into genera and species, de-
| liDcratciN SCI about naming the now OBJ
Jcrl from some rccul;aritys but if it
should happen that some entirely new
animal appeared, who would 90 about
giving it 4 name by which those not
familiar with science might call ito
| Who was ii who first called our beast of
| burdcn horse, and why was it called
horse? Why not Just rs well have said
PIC or COW? Nearly GScry word has u
history which explains thc reasons of
its existence?
There are many names which bear
Their r"aSon upon their 1uccs, as black
bird, Wo0dprckGr, iiy-calchcr, oys,cr-
catcher, pinch-bu|, tumHto-worm, and a
host of others. Then there arc 4 laroc
number whose names are easily under
stood, because the words used in dcscrib-
ing them are onCmatopctic, that is, the
word iii its sound in Il measure repre-
Scnt* some action Of the animal. Tx.
amp!rS OF such are hlmming-bird bum,
ble-bc", name corrupted from humble.
bee. probably 50 called from il, habit OF
storing IFS honey III ti,o ground. IIoot,
"Wl 10 another. and scrccch-owl
y great many animals have English
names which are captured from some
other language. The word bear is
Dutch. The early English took this
word, but pronounced it bcra, and rs t
came down ii became wcathcr-bcatcn
and changed by us into bear. Alligator
is another word which could not stand
the twist of the Fnglioh tongue. When
the EprHiIGds landed there and saw this
greatest OF lizards they ut once rccor-
nlZcd It's place in nature and called il
CT "9urto, or the lizard. 1t can be cas-
! lily seen how English sailors, hearing
this term constantly, brought the words
home, but not beng familiar with
Spanish, the two words W%yo blended
and cliagarto. vas inc result, which has
alncn "WrHthcrcd' into alligator, its
! present form.
Hawk, i'll old EnHih, was spelled
hafoc, meaning havoc. 4 good idea is
! thus given of the Birds habits. lust as
the raven expresses greed. We say
ravrnOuS 10 this day.
The names sometimes miSirad. as in
the case Of our turkey. TX" Inference
here is that Turkey is thc rH;;yc home
of tkc bird, when in truth it is bird
| peculiarly orr own. The French fell
into like error. They supposed it came
from India, and called it ''d'Indc."
There is great deal Of lore stored up
IN single word at times. The name
Tor the kinGiiSher in ancient times was
the Greek halcyon, and it is still SO
called, although We have long ago
| learned th0 fallaoy of lis name. They
Thought the sea became calm and con-
ilnucd SO while this bird brOodcd over
lis nest, which was supposed to float
upon the water. We call calm, happy
days haIcyon days, and it is poetic, even
| II INC cold, prOSy facts do not bear out
! the idea.
| The way Il word changes lis appear
ancc Is shown III our word rcdingotc.
| lhlS word was first an English word,
and was nothing more than II gentle
man riding coat. This garment be-
came the fashion in Paris, where they
'rled to pronounce it, and, after being
consldcrabl" ..a;rd, came back to Lon
con aS -:mcmt for ladies, with the
dliirr i;cc i'll spelling
The history of words is not always to
be relied upon, as shown by our words
turkey and pheasant. The original
! pheasant came from the river Phasis,
and the fancicd resemblance of our
grouse fastened this name TO it,
Those who first saw the leopard with
It's spotted coat attempted TO account
tor 1T by Supposing that it had lion
leo--and the giraffe or camclcopard for
parents, calling the result Of this most
improbable union the leopard
Any one who has watched the festive
goat has remarked how sudden and un-
accountable are his movements. He
seems TO have no settled idea as to lust
what hc wants to do. Capra is the
Latin word for goat, and from this We
have capcr and CapriciouS,-g goat like.
This gives vigor and vividE"ss TO the
world. In view Of the goats pcnchant