Feb. 6—A lady in Europe wrote to her brother the other day saying that she had seen a Popinjay in her garden, with the inevitable result that I was dragged in to say what a Popinjay was....so I referred to my usual sources of information, Mr. Webster suggested that the bird was either a Green Woodpecker ora Parrot The Encyc. Brit, made similar remarks but intrigued me by stating that the word was onomatopoeic and suggested a vain, con-celted, empty-headed person, Hence, I may sa} speaking onomatopoeically, that a Popinjay is a mutt, nut, fop or jay which pops! This method of speech is most distressing and I had almost given up hope of solving the problem when the Encye, Brit, suddenly referred me to "Archery." Turning up "Archery," I got to the root, source or nub of the whole argument. It seems that all early Scotch archery competitions were held at a place called Kilwinning (obviously onomatopeic Scotch for a place where you save the price of prizes)....and there a Goose was buried, with only its head showing, for the archers to shoot at: this was known as the Popinjay: but even Geese are dear: so the Scots substituted a small glass globe which was cheaper, but which is still known among the select company of Archers as the Popinjay. So now I have it, A Popinjay is a Green Woodpecker, a Parrot, a buried Goose, a cheap glass Tslobe. or an empty-headed person (see above). Thinking it all over, I am going to write a letter to Europe-by the next mail as follows: "Dear cly: What dec; a Popinjay look like? You one in your do write and tell
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.