ame is
_Moneke_, a diminutive corresponding to Ital. _monicchio_, "a pugge, a
_munkie_, an ape" (Florio), the earlier history of which is much
disputed. The cat was called _Tibert_ or _Theobald_--

MERCUTIO. "_Tybalt_, you rat-catcher, will you walk?"
TYBALT. "What wouldst thou have with me?"
MERCUTIO. "Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives."
(_Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 1.)

The fact that the donkey was at one time regularly called _Cuddy_ made
_Cuthbert_ for a long period unpopular as a baptismal name. He is now
often called _Neddy_. The hare was called _Wat_ (_Walter_) in Tudor
times. In the _Roman de Renard_ he is _Couard_, whence _coward_, a
derivative of Old Fr. _coue_ (_queue_), tail, from Lat. _cauda_. The
idea is that of the tail between the legs, so that the name is
etymologically not very appropriate to the hare. _Parrot_, for earlier
_perrot_, means "little Peter." The extension _Poll parrot_ is thus a
kind of hermaphrodite. Fr. _pierrot_ is still used for the sparrow. The
family name _Perrot_ is sometimes a nickname, "the chatterer," but can
also mean literally "little Peter," just as _Emmot_ means "little Emma,"
and _Marriot_ "little Mary." _Petrel_ is of cognate origin, with an
allusion to St Peter's walking upon the sea; _cf._ its German name,
_Sankt Peters Vogel_. Sailors call the petrel _Mother Carey's chicken_,
probably a nautical corruption of some old Spanish or Italian name.
But, in spite of ingenious guesses, this lady's genealogy remains as
obscure as that of Davy Jones or the Jolly Roger.

[Page Heading: NAMES OF BIRDS]

_Robin_ has practically replaced _red-breast_. The _martin_ is in French
_martinet_, and the name may have been given in allusion to the
southward flight of this swallow about Martinmas; but the king-fisher,
not a migrant bird, is called _martin-pecheur_, formerly also _martinet
pecheur_ or _oiseau de Saint-Martin_, so that _martin_ may be due to
some other association. Sometimes the double name survives. We no longer
say _Philip sparrow_, but _Jack ass_, _Jack daw_, _Jenny wren_, _Tom
tit_ (see p. 123), and the inclusive _Dicky bird_, are still familiar.
With these we may compare _Hob_ (_i.e._ Robert) _goblin_. _Madge owl_,
or simply _Madge_, was once common. For _Mag pie_ we find also various
diminutives--

"Augurs, and understood relations, have
By _magot-pies_, and choughs, and rooks, brought for