Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Coal-and-Candle-Light

Some regional or dialect names for birds are well known. For example; Bottle Tit for Long-tailed Tit, Butcher Bird for Redbacked Shrike, Stormcock for Mistle Thrush, and, if you have birded in the Highlands, such local names as Bonxie for Great Skua, Gowk for Cuckoo and Tystie for Black Guillemot. But can you match the names in the first column, 01-16, to the birds in the second column, A-P?
Essentially, most local names are nicknames, picking out some feature of the bird such as shape, call, preferred habitat or nest site. If, for example, you know what a coulter is and what a neb is, you should have no difficulty matching 13.

01

Alp or Olp

A

Bittern

02

Aberdevine

B

Blackbird

03

Beam Bird

C

Blue Tit

04

Billy Biter

D

Bullfinch

05

Bessy Blakeling

E

Corn Bunting

06

Butter Bump

F

Eider

07

Carr Goose

G

Garganey

08

Chickerel

H

Great Crested Grebe

09

Clot Bird

I

Long-tailed Duck

10

Coal-and-Candle-Light

J

Puffin

11

Colly Bird

K

Siskin

12

Corn Dumpling

L

Spotted Flycatcher

13

Coulter Neb

M

Wheatear

14

Cricket Teal

N

Whimbrel

15

Cushat

O

Wood Pigeon

16

Cuthbert Duck

P

Yellowhammer



4 comments:

d~ said...

Using Brother Cat's "List of Pointmouths I Wish to Bite", I figured out the following:

02 Aberdevine = K Sisken
03 Beam Bird = L Spotted Flycatcher
04 Billy Biter = C Blue Tit
06 Butter Bump = A Bittern
07 Carr Goose = Great Crested Grebe
10 Coal-and-Candle-Light = I Long-tailed Duck
11 Colly Bird = B Blackbird
12 Corn Dumpling = E Corn Bunting
13 Coulter Neb = J Puffin
14 Cricket Teal = G Garganey
15 Cushat = O Wood Pigeon
16 Cuthbert Duck = F Eider

Four of the birds weren't on his list. I won't speculate as to why.

Jake Allsop said...

You definitely get a gold star for that, Dixie! As a former teacher, I have no choice but to make the next quiz much harder. Yeah!
Jake

Jake Allsop said...

Well done, Dixie. I must make the next test a lot harder!
I particularly like coal-and-candle-light, which is supposed to be a rendering of the call of the Long-tailed Duck (Oldsquaw).

d~ said...

Who is the Bessy Blakeling, though?