"DEAR SIR—I have failed to find the exact word used by Wordsworth—muccawiss. The nearest to it is 'moshkaois,' which signifies 'bittern,' a water-fowl of the diver class, to which the name has reference, it being a derivative from a verb meaning to rise to the surface of the water. The word is no doubt of Algonkin origin, and I would suggest that you write to the Algonkin scholar, par excellence, of our country, Colonel J. Hammond Trumbull, Hartford, Conn., who is both able and willing to solve all the enigmas of that difficult tongue.—Very truly yours, D. G. BRINTON."
"Henry Reed, Esq."
"NO. 400 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA,
"October 2nd, 1883.
"MY DEAR MR. KNIGHT—I enclose a letter from Colonel Trumbull, which I think you will find satisfactory.—Yours very sincerely, HENRY REED."
"HARTFORD, CONN., September 29th, 1883.
"HENRY REED, Esq., Philadelphia.
"DEAR SIR—Wordsworth's 'Muccawis' was, certainly, a Whip-poor-will, and he must have taken the Indian name, directly or at second-hand, from Carver's Travels. Among the birds 'found in the interior parts of North America,' Carver (chap. 18) describes 'the Whipper-will, or, as it is termed by the Indians, the Muckawis.... As soon as night comes on, these birds will place themselves on the fences, stumps, or stones that lie near some house, and repeat their melancholy notes without any variation till midnight,' etc. So Wordsworth's
Melancholy muccawis
Repeated, o'er and o'er, his plaintive cry.
"I have an impression—which I have not just now leisure to verify—that Carver's description of this and some other American birds was reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine. Two or three English editions of the Travels had been printed before The Excursion was written.