Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 09:52:47 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Skunkheads reducks 2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline HOGCHOKERS, POPES, AND PIGWITCHES In a posting to MDOSPREY (cf. MDOSPREY.home.att.net) my use of the name Hogchoker, a small species of sole (flounder-type fish), drew some commentary. It doesn't sound as if it ought to be but Hogchoker (Trinectes maculatus) is the genuine name used by the scientific community. So is the name for our common jellyfish, the Sea Nettle (Chrysaora quinquecirrha). Here is a fanciful enumeration of other species, as it might sound like coming from an Eastern Shore of Virginia waterman. The "right" names are listed at the end. Of course many birds are known locally by their "correct" names, such as snipe, Brant, loons, etc. My own feeling is, these "colloquial" names are sometimes more apt than the "proper" names. In any case, if you love to hear watermen talk as much as I do, you'll know I'm not being condescending or patronizing (or sexist or racist ... read on) about this, much less making fun of anybody's English or lifestyles. The richness of our language is due to its great variety. Language is organic and changes in ways somewhat analogous to biological evolution. These are almost all names I've heard used "in situ" in Virginia, a few only on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, some of them from people visiting Rigby. Ones beginning with caps refer to distinct species. Yes, we got Hogchokers and other fishes, your Spot, Hardheads, Croakers , trout, and Rock. Puppy Drum, alewives, and others. Then there's Blowtoads, Oystercrackers, and Dowdies, too. And Doubleheads, but you can't eat them but they're good for bait. Far as crabs go, it's like the Eskimos. They got all sorts of names for different kinds of ice and snow. Here we got names for all the crab types. There's busters, popes, shedders, softshells, papershells, and doublers (the one underneath's always a softcrab), your ordinary hard crab, and, of course, there's jimmies and sooks. There's more different ways uh crabbin' than there's for drudgin' arsters. Herebouts we mostly take to pottin'. Up to Smith's Island they got them pretty little boats, with real low freeboard, for scrapin'. On Maryland's shore there's lotsa trot linin'. Weekends city people come to chicken-neck for trappin', else ways go dip nettin' in the shoal areas. Now birds, that's somethin' else. Lot of them little sandpipers, we got all sorts. The big ones, the Straight-billed Curlew, they used to shoot and eat them. Sea Crows, too. And Curlew, as well. In the old days they'd also shoot Calicobacks, Robin Snipe, and Sewin' Machines. And Black-breasted Beetlers. Ducks was commoner then but there's still lots of Little Dippers, Clubheads (also called Whifflers or Whistlers), and Southerlies, which we sometimes call South South Southerlies, or Pintails. Out on the ocean Skunkheads are real common and other types of sea coots. You go real far out to sea, farther than I go for the shad in February, you get tuna birds in summer. Never see them from land. Other places got more ponds and freshwater than here, they got more ducks like Sprigs, Spoonbills and teal. Oh, we got them, too, but not many. In the old days there's was but one gull in summer and that was the Cacklin' Gull, called Soft Crab Gull, too. Now, the Winter Gulls is nesting on the islands as well. Time was, you'd never see a winter gull but in winter. All the old names, like Egg Harbor up in Jersey, Egg Marsh, Great Egging Island, and the like, that was cause they'd go out there to the tumps and other places and gather gull eggs and they would make a good omelet or two with that. Then let' em alone to do their business and nest again. Big groups of gulls and strikers, Little Strikers, and Big Strikers, still nest on the islands as well as Flood Gulls, which we also call the Scissorbill or Cutwater. There's the little Minnie Hawks, too. What you call the cormorant, well, you know what sort of names they have, and Shag is one of the polite ones. No need to tell you the others. Those are words a smart person don't say no more. Although you might say Shitpoke, but not t'other, unless you were to say Pocomoke Goose or Baltimore Goose. I know one thing, there's more and more each year. In early April or late March there are a lot of little divers, we call Pigwitches or the Waterwitch. And in the summer there's the little heron, called Scowp 'cause of the way they call when you jump him. Of course you know the White Crane and the Blue Crane, the blue one sometimes called Forty Quarts o' Soup or Old Cranky. Them night herons, I believe you say, here is called the Wop or Bumcutter cause of what he sounds like. Now you want to see the shorebirds you need to go to Thoms Creek 'bout half tide. Long as it's not breezin' up to bad, I'll take yuh. If I can't then Shotbill or Zoot Zoot will. Or one of the Heath boys in their big deadrise. Them fish ducks, there's not much to eatin' one, but they're good to shoot at anyway. You get the Hairy Head or French Pheasant in the little sloughs and ditches, up the guts, the Sheldrake or regular Pheasant in the bays and ocean. Up to Smith's they call the Hairy Head the Pond Snout. Every so often, when there's a big freezeup or blizzard in Jersey, or Canada, then the woodcocks pile in here like crazy. Take Hans's spaniel out and you'd flush one every twenty feet. Up north they call them the Labrador Twister or Bogsucker. In Ninety-three we got a real cold rain, coated all the rushes and sedges and trees with ice. Everything. The woodcocks like to froze. Chicken Hawks was hitting them right off the grass. Goin' down 600 woodcocks, blackbirds, Killdees, Field Larks, and Canaries was all along the roadside. Couldn't help but hit some with the truck. Big old Sicklebill. Never used to see him at all until the sixties. Now there's white ones, too. In with the herons and cranes. In the summer when the light's about gone in the piney woods you hear what we call the Whip-poor-will. Old Charlie would call them the Hollerin' Boys but you know the colored's got all sort of names for things is different from ours, just as ours is different from what you city or college people might say. Most ways, anyway. Least way I see it. In September, when there's doves before the Partridge season, you can also shoot the Sage Hens or Marsh Guineas when the tide's good and flooded. Time was, the tradition for that was a big deal. Big shots would come from Washington. Nowsdays hardly anyone bothers but if you breast him out and put bacon strips on it, it is right tasty. That's about the smart of it. And when the tide starts to slack, that's when your Sage Hen will start to hollerin'. There's other smaller marshhens or mudhens, too, and such, about the size of a Field Lark, but you don't see them as much as you see the Sage Hen. Also in September and sometimes in August you have Reedbirds, or Ricebirds as they're also known, pilein' into the reed beds at Oyster late in the day. Other places I know they get shot, or used to, 'cause they'd feed on wild rice, and come already stuffed. Onlyest thing I know, there's not as much huntin' as there used to be and that's too bad, to see that tradition dyin' out. Of course, I haven't gone gunnin' since I was a boy but it is nice to see a bunch of fellas out on the marsh enjoyin' themselves. Get away from the little old lady and cut loose a little. Even if you come back with nothin' to show you're bound to be better off. Nothin' better than a day on the marsh or water. Right fair straight. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================