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.
Zapornia 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 classical 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 Peacock of the Roses;' but its cry is represented by the liquid
syllables 'Piolo,' while the black-spotted one o