T HE CHANGE of asparagus into sparrowgrass is the best known example of what is called 'folk etymology'-the transformation of a form under the influence of some other word with which it has an apparent or fancied connection. Many good examples of this process may be pointed out in the field of bird appellations in North America. Early sailors called the red-throated loon cape-race (a name recorded from Newfoundland and Massachusetts), from its being commonly seen off Cape Race, Newfoundland, and the name has spread to all parts of the northeastern coast, at the same time undergoing considerable rationalization. Cape-racer (New Brunswick; Nova Scotia; Maine, Mass.) seems an inevitable derivative, while cape drake (Nova Scotia) and scapegrace (Labrador; New Brunswick; Nova Scotia; Mass.; N.Y.) have definite, if changed, meanings. Other popular variations are found in cabrace (Mass.), capderace (Newfoundland, 1622), cape-brace (Mass.), carbreast (Quebec), caybrace (Mass.), corbrace (Newfoundland; Labrador; Nova Scotia), and corbrus (Newfoundland; Labrador). Other loon names have been subjected to a similar process, if in lesser degree. There is argument over the word loon itself, most dictionaries tracing it to Scandinavian lom, 'lame,' in allusion to the birds' awkwardness on land, but some think it is from Luna and means moonstruck or loony, with reference to their wild calls. The cognomen buckalew bird has been reported from New Jersey, as from the cries of the loon, but the name Baccalieu bird, applied to various species that nest on the Newfoundland isle of that name, may have been transferred southward and restricted to this species. The sobriquet peggin'-awl loon (Mass.), again for the red-throated loon, in reference to its long, pointed bill, is altered in the same State to peckinall, which may have a meaning, and to pegmonk, the significance of which is unknown. Probably derivative also is peggy loon for Holboell's grebe (Long Island, N.Y.). A variation of the name cormorant in New Jersey gives the forms McCormack and McCormick. The Canada goose is personified as a 'Kennedy' in Nebraska. From the word widgeon came Norwegian for the American widgeon in Utah and Norwegian duck and the tautonym Nor-