P.J.F. GANTILLON.
St. John's College.
Swans hatched during Thunder (Vol. ii., p. 510.).—Some years ago I purchased a pair of swans, and, during the first breeding season after I procured them, they made a nest in which they deposited seven eggs. After they had been sitting about six weeks, I observed to my servant, who had charge of them and the other water-fowl, that it was about the time for the swans to hatch. He immediately said, that it was no use expecting it till there had been a rattling peal of thunder to crack the egg-shells, as they were so hard and thick that it was impossible for the cygnets to break them without some such assistance. Perhaps this is the reason why swans are said to be hatched during a thunder-storm. I need only say, that this is a popular fallacy, as swans regularly hatch after sitting six weeks, whether there happens to be a thunder-storm or not.
HENRY E.
Etymology of Apricot (Vol. ii., p. 420.).—I cannot agree in the opinion expressed by your correspondent E.C.H., that this word is derived from the Latin præcox, signifying "early-ripening,"—that the words προκοκκια and πρεκοκκια are
Græcised Latin,—and that the Arabs themselves, adopting the word with a slight variation, made it al-bercoy.
The fact of the fruit itself being of Asiatic origin, renders it in the highest degree improbable that the Orientals would borrow a name for it from the Latin.
My own opinion is, that the reverse is the case—that the Latin is merely a corruption of the Arabic; and that the Latins, in adopting the word, naturally gave it the slight alteration which rendered the Arabic word, to them unmeaning, appropriately significant of the nature of the fruit.
I find that in various languages the word strolls thus in the Latin of the middle age, avercoccius—in the modern Greek, βερυκοκκιον—in the Italian, albercocco, albicocca—in the Spanish, albaricoque—and all these various words, undeducible from the Latin præcox, are readily derivable from the Arabic word, the prefix al, which is merely the article, being in some cases dropped, and in others retained.
I may add, as a curious fact, that, in the south of Italy, of which I am a native, the common people call the apricot verricocca, and the peach precucco, although the former ripen earlier than the latter.