I recall walking in the Lomonds in the Fife region of Scotland as a child,
being introduced to the skylark for the first time by my grandfather - a
monumental moment in my turn to birding, lying back and watching the dot in
the sky singing its heart out for what seemed like hours, then dropping in
stages until, like a stone, it vanished into the grass. Old George used to
refer to sparrows as "spiugs".
Cheers,
Paul
On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 2:00 AM, Peter Shute <> wrote:
> By "children getting it wrong", I meant the drift from spadger to spidgie,
> rather than getting the word "sparrow" wrong.
>
> And I'm wondering if all the variations you mention are restricted to those
> found in written form. It strikes me that these are words that most people
> only use verbally, reverting to "sparrow" when they write.
>
> And I also get the impression that they were mainly used by children, but
> I'm not sure why that would be., or why they've stopped. I must teach them
> to my kids (while reminding them that regional nicknames are unacceptable in
> serious birding-aus discussions)..
>
> Peter Shute
>
>
> --------------------------
> Sent using BlackBerry
>
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