homeliness, ‘Sparrow;’ if tenderness, ‘Pigeon’ or ‘Dove,’ and so on with our ‘Swans,’ ‘Herons,’ ‘Cootes,’ ‘Gulls,’ ‘Storks,’ ‘Ravens,’ ‘Crows,’ ‘Speights,’ ‘Cranes,’ ‘Capons,’ ‘Henns,’ ‘Chickens,’[585] ‘Ducks,’ ‘Duckerells,’ ‘Drakes,’ ‘Sheldrakes’ or ‘Sheldricks,’ ‘Wildgooses,’ ‘Mallards’ (_i.e._ wild duck), ‘Gooses’ or ‘Goss’s,’[586] ‘Greygooses,’ ‘Goslings,’[587] ‘Ganders,’ ‘Woodcocks,’ ‘Partridges,’ ‘Partricks,’ ‘Pheasants,’ or ‘Fesants,’ as once spelt, and ‘Blackbirds.’[588] These are names ornithologically familiar to us. Many a pretty name, however, once on the common tongue but now obsolete, or well-nigh so, still abides in our surnames. Thus our ‘Popjays’ still preserve the remembrance of the once common _popinjay_ or parrot, ‘the popinjay, full of delicasy,’ as Chaucer styles her.[589] In ‘Culver’ or ringdove we are reminded of the pathetic story of Philomine, where the same writer likens her to the lamb that of the wolf is bitten, Or as the culver, that of the eagle is smitten.[590] Our ‘Ruddocks’ or ‘Ruddicks’ (‘Ralph Ruddoc,’ A.), again, are but the old _ruddock_ or robin-redbreast, ‘the tame ruddock,’ as he is termed in the ‘Assembly of Fowls.’ The hedge-sparrow still lives represented by our ‘Pinnocks’ or ‘Pinnicks’ ‘John Pynnock’ (G.), ‘Richard Pinnoc’ (A.)— Thus in the pinnick’s nest the cuckoo lays, Then, easy as a Frenchman, takes her flight. So an old writer says. Our ‘Turtles’ (‘Roger Turtle’ D.) are but pleasant memorials of the bird that has been so long emblematic of constancy, the dove; our ‘Challenders,’ if not a corruption of ‘Callender,’ are representatives of the _chelaunder_ or goldfinch, so often mentioned by early poets; and in our ‘Woodalls,’ ‘Woodales,’ and ‘Woodwalls,’ not to say some of our ‘Woodwells,’ we are but reminded of the _woodwale_, the early woodpecker. Our ‘Rains’ are but the old ‘Robert or William le Rain,’ another term for the same;[591] while our ‘Stars’ and ‘Stares’ (‘Robert Stare,’ A.) carry us back to the day when the starling was so familiarly styled. In the ‘Assembly of Fowls’ the author speaks of— The false lapwing, full of trecherie, The _stare_, that the counsaile can beurie. In the ‘Romance of the Rose’ a list of birds is given embracing many of the above— For there was many a bird singing, Throughout the yard all thringing, In many places were nightingales, Alpes, finches, and wodewales, That in their sweet song delighten, In thilke (such) places as they habiten. There might men see many flocks of turtles, and laverocks, Chelaundres fele (many) saw I there, That very nigh forsongen were (tired of singing).