Evening star., 1945-08-29
This and That
By Charles E. Trace1Uell.
sG"ToWER BUILDING

=
Dear Sir
Your today's article on the flicker
family interested me. You mention a
great variety of names for the flicker
in various parts of the country. You
failed to mention the one name by which
this bird was exclusively known in my
boyhood home in Currituck County.
northwestern North Carolina. There it
was called the Will Crisson,' and only
that SO far as I can remember May I
ask if you know anything about that
name? Very gratefully, S. T. A."
The only place where we have seen
mention of this odd name for the flicker
is in Charlotte Hilton Green's Birds
of the South" where it is given as
"Wilcrissen"
Mrs. Green says that there are 124
popular names for this bird We men
toned about a dozen, SO we have more
than a hundred to go.
If any reader knows anything about
the name of will Crisson," or will
criSSen," especially as to its origin
this column will be glad to know about it.
That excellent book, Birds OF North
Carolina" contains nothing on the
subject
Most popular names come from sounds
made by bird or are derived from some
physical popularity, or different or odd
nesting habits
AS far as we know, the flicker, or
golden winged woodpecker, has the rec
ord with 124 names to its credit.
1t may be realized that persons from
various parts of the country might be
talking about the same bird and never
know it.
We will never forget standing in front
of the Chevy Chase Club one morning,
watching a catbird
A friend standing there exclaimed,
"Oh, there's a snakebird!'
1t developed that in the part of Vir-
ginia from which he came the cathird is
almost universally called snakebird, it
being believed that it calls "sna-a-a-ke"
whenever it sees one.
Catbird is certainly a better popular
name, since the creatures ordinary cry
or call is distinctly catlike, almost q
meow, or new
bird once often seen on the coast
but today something of rarity is the
Willet, which also has many popular or
common names, including Spanish plo-
yer, stone curlew, duck snipe, semipal-
mated snipe, will-willet, pill-will- l-willet,
humility and pied-wing curlew.
The common name of will-willet, it
may be realized, easily could have come
from some one named Will Willet, but
whether it did or not would be difficult
to say.
The probability is that both the name
of will-willet for the willet, and Will
Crisson or wilcriSsen for the flicker,
are merely attempts to initiate some
of the noises made by the birds.
The flicker, being big fellow, makes
considerable noise at times, and the
wlllet never stops screaming, so it
may be realized that this loquacious-
ness on the part of both birds is likely
to attract the attention of persons who
DO not know or care about scientific
names.
The willet would make a good one
Tor day celebrations, because he can
stand on his hindlegs and scream "Yip-
ylp-yip" for hours at time.
The "pill-willet" comes when he starts
to fly.
This is one of the noisiest of all birds,
seeming to get kick Out of it for its
own sake
The odd name of humility" is sup
posed to have been given it because of
its habit of sticking its head into the
mud after worms.
The spotted sandpiper is another with
q grand list Of common names. These
include peep, peetweet, teeter-peep.
teeter-tail, teeterer, tip-up, tilt-up, sand
lark, see-saw, sand-peep, sand snipe and
river snipe. Teeter. tip-up and see-saw
come from the birds habit Of tiltiIfR the
body; most Of the others from it, criee.