When the news reached me that Ray Reedman had written another book on the subject of the history of bird names, also, like his previous “Lapwings, Loons and Lousy Jacks; The How and Why of Bird Names,” published by Pelagic Publishing, my pocket notebook was immediately deployed and a note duly made (as the motto of the journal Notes & Queries instructs us: “When found, make a note of”).
With her superb mix of erudition and wit, Dr. Hana Videen’s first book “The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English” captured both the minds and hearts of those who read it. Now, in her second book, The Deorhord; An Old English Bestiary,” she delves more deeply into the fascinating and sometimes mysterious hoard of Old English words used to describe the animals known to the medieval English world.
If you’re like me – and my condolences to you if you actually are – you probably enjoy a well-researched list of natural history eponyms. And when it comes to natural history eponyms, bird species are one of the most popular subjects to examine in order to discover the history behind the name and as a result increase one’s overall knowledge about the history of natural history in general and the history of ornithology in particular.
As most any naturalist with a healthy interest in words does, I’ve long enjoyed the past-time of venereal – or collective – nouns. From the traditional, widely known, and more-or-less official – an exhalation of larks, a school of fish, a pack of wolves – to the playful and decidedly unofficial – an aroma of […]