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 _praecox_, signifying "early-ripening,"--that the words [Greek:
prokokkia] and [Greek: prekokkia] are {76} Graecised 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.
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