Hi all, I thought I'd pass on this cute bird story I read in New
Scientist recently. Could fall under the title of Urban Myths, but
who cares, its a funny story. And just what is a"grizzled-looking
cowpoke" anyway?
Lainie Berry, Monash University
On his first trip across the Atlantic, a British bird-watcher was
observing a flock of western sandpipers feeding on a Californian
coastal marsh. When a group of Audubon Society field-trippers
arrived, he thought he'd do his bit for Anglo-American relations by
explaining how rare these birds were in Britain and how to identify
them.
Getting carried away, he began giving the crowd a long lecture on
sandpipers, explaining how western sandpipers could be distinguished
from semipalmated sandpipers by "jizz", the phrase used by British
bird-watchers to describe subtle indentification points and hints.
At that point the 20-strong group scurried away, raincoats billowing.
The British twitcher's perplexed look was greeted with a calming arm
around his shoulder and the comforting words of the group leader, a
grizzled-looking cowpoke.
"You Brits sure know yer stuff" , he mused in pure Texan. "I've heard
you can tell these damned peeps apart many ways, but that real beats
me. Jizz...wow"
Later that evening, a friend explained that in the US, jizz is slang
for semen.
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