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292
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1882
Now the ordinary modern Panjabi word for would appear, for the koil, the maind and the the common Mainâ (acridetheres tristis), or the sh&m, all being black and all song birds, would Main of the plains as distinguished from the be called indifferently from their colour sáriku, Mainâ proper, or talking Main of the hills syand, kalika and krishna, while the remark(gracula religiosa or musica), is shárak, sárak, able yellow patches on the genuine hill or sharak or sarak.
talking Mainê would give it the name of sárika. Fallon, New Hindustani Dictionary, follow- Fallon, New Hind. Dict., gives the following ing the munghis, (8. v. sharak), says it is as the names of the different kinds of main :Persian, and that the Hindi word is sárak and 1. Maina, kisni, kishni; black mainâ, -grawrongly that the Sanskrit word is shariká. culus religiosa. 8. v. mainá he gives maind sárik as the name 2. Mainâ pavi; grey-headed maina, temenuof the ordinary or plains Mainâ. Johnson, chus malabaricus. Persian and Arabic Dictionary, 8. v. sharak, 3. Maina sârik; common mainâ, acridetheres says it means "& species of talking bird (P tristis. maina), a grackle,' a nightingale." But I alto 4. Ågå mainâ; superior talking maina (P gether doubt if the Panjabi and Hindi sárak, i turduus salica). shdrak or sdrik is of Persian origin, as we have 5. Ablaq mainâ, ablaka, suroin; pied-starin Sanskrit, sári, siri, sáriká, salákd, sáriká ling, sturnopastor contra. and salvika, for the gracula religiosa or Maina. 6. Båmani main, Brahmaņi mainê, pahaiâ, The words with & I take to mean mainly streaked pâbiya, pawi; blackheaded maina, temenuchus or spotted with yellow, as the hill Mainê is. pagodarum.
Sári, sari and sárika are also used for another 7. Pahâriâ maina; Naipal hill mainå, eulabes bird, a thrush, the turdus salica.'
intermedia. Sárika would mean 'dark coloured, and is 1 8. Teliê maina; common starling, sturnus used not only for the black Maina of the hills, but vulgaris. also for yet another bird well known in the 9. Gulabi maina; rose-coloured starling, Himalayas as a sweet singer at the present day, pastor roseus, the shám, shámd, sydm or syámá, (turdus macro- I would add guļdri, ghuţár, ghuţartPanjabi urus) or Indian nightingale. Its Sanskrit names, names for the common Mainâ, acridetheres tristis, all obviously meaning black or dark, were sdrika and gursal' as the equivalent in Hindi. éyámd and kálikd, -an important word in this The shárak, or Maina under consideration, connection. The sham is not, however, the is not now the talking Maina, but I think it is mainâ, nor is it now mixed up with it, and it is clearly the representative of the sárika or never taught to talk.
talking Main of the ancients, and I do not There is still another well known bird mixed think it is doing violence to philological prin up with the above, viz., the koil, koyal, kuya- ciples to connect the Sanskrit sáriká, sárika, liyd or kokla, in Sanskrit kokila, the Indian and kdlikd with the Greek Keprioy. Kepkla, too, cuckoo (cuculus Indicus), for it has the name is feminine, and I would observe that all the of syam, syamá, or shámá in modern times and words, ancient and modern, for Mains, with in the Sanskrit days it was called éyáma (mas.) maind itself, are feminine also. and kfishna, black. It is to be observed here Ælian says he believes that the name kepriar that kisni or kishni, (Kishn, Krishna) is a came from the habit the bird had of wagging common name now for the black or' hill Maina. its tail. Now oddly enough karakná is used
This confusion is not so unaccountable as it in Kulla, and sometimes in Kangra, for to
1 Pfor graculus, which in Latin is a jay or jackdaw. The scientific name for the maind proper is gracula religiosa or musica.
* The mother of Säriputra "the right hand attendant of Buddha" was called SarikA from this bird. She was famous for the strength of her eyes. Her husband's name was Tishya.- Asiat. Res. vol. XX, p. 48.-ED.
The first words & maind is usually taught are "Rim Rim" and "RadhKishen," and from this the munahis charasteristically derive the word kiahnf !
• The Lodi na Panjabi Dict. vaguely calls it, 1. v, ghutdr, a kind of bird.
Fallon, 8. v., calls it a small bird with a yellow bill. • Another favourite black songster of the hills is the kastard or kasturt, the black capped blackbird, merula nigropileus. Fallon, 8. v., says it is also used for the grey-winged blackbird, merula boul boul, and for the three-coloured thrush or white-winged ground-thrush, geocichla cyanotus.
