Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 09:52:34 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Skunkheads reducks 1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline I didn't think my recent offhand reference to skunkheads would unleash such a firestorm of colloquial names, otherwise I might have been more careful since it verges on being off-topic as much as most of the the Barnacle Goose situation. The reaction was worth it for me if only to learn that the Spotted Sandpiper is known in some parts as doodleass. That reminds me of an article a few years ago, in "the Wilson Bulletin" I think, entitled something like: "Is the Spotted Sandpiper an upside down flying fish?", an astounding title to see in a staid, professional scientific journal. The idea was that both sandpiper and fish fly very close to the surface of the water to escape their respective predators, the bird goes down, the fish goes up. However, there is obviously a lot of interest in these names so perhaps it is appropriate to reissue a revised and enhanced posting I made last year which attempts to be an informal narrative done in Eastern Shore patois full of colloquial names, at the end of which there is a glossary of the names mentioned. Enough changes and additions have been made since then so that it is, I hope, considerably improved. The posting appeared later on in "The Maryland Yellowthroat" as well as the newsletter of the Cecil County B.C. and VA-BIRD. I hope to use it eventually in a book I am writing. Colloquial names are a bottomless pit. Look through earlier references such as E. H. Forbush ("Birds of Massachusetts and other New England states") and F. H. Kortright ("the Ducks, geese and swans of North America"), for example, that list 17 and 65 names for Surf Scoter respectively, including bay muscovie, blossom bill, gogglenose, morrocojaw, plaster bill, snuff-taker, tar-bucket, pishaug, and horsehead plus others I dare not mention. There are thousands of these names. As a boy I made up names for some birds, such as billy chip-so for House Sparrow and budgy chipperer for American Goldfinch. I also like Duncan MacDonald's appellation, "the three stinkers", for House Sparrow, starling, and Rock Dove. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119-1225. Any off-list replies, please, to: harryarmistead@hotmail.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================