Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 21:26:24 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul Subject: skunk-head redux (reducks?) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I only partially followed the thread about skunk-heads a month or so ago, so the following may either be repeated material or completely irrelevant. Now that I've set the stage for a total letdown, I thought you all might be interested in a passage from the book "An Exhilaration of Wings". In that book there's an excerpt from Charles Wendell Townsend's Sand Dunes and Salt Marshes, 1913, where he writes, "... These 'coots' that I speak of are really ducks, and they are known as the American scoter or butter-bill, the surf scoter or skunk-head and the white-winged scoter." By the way, this is a great book, and I highly recommend it. It's a collection of essays about birds, dating from the 1700's to the early 1900's. Three conclusions that I've reached while reading this book: 1) anthropomorphism ruled over objective science, 2) everyone hates the House Sparrow, and 3) there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to birding (there's a reference to Big Days from 1902!). Good birding, Paul Pisano Arlington, VA cheep@erols.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================