[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

curlews, the name, another iteration



A couple of summers ago, I was able to bird Norfolk, England. One of my favorite birds there was the Stone Curlew. This bird was not what we know as a Curlew. Stone Curlews are really a type of Thick-knees, and they have straight bills, sort of on the order of a night-heron's bill. I understood that the Stone Curlew name was from its call.

I wonder if these might be the curlews of Thomas's poem?

Cheers,
St.


Regarding: Simon Thompson rightly answered my recent question about the name "curlew",
 saying it referred to shorebirds with a downcurving bill. However, my memory
 was
 somewhat justified, as the Oxford English Dictionary
 states that the origin of the word "curlew" is thought by
 most to derive from the Old French, meaning the sound made by the bird.

and


Seeing this last post on the name "Curlew' and its possible derivation from
its call note reminds me of a poem by Dylan Thomas which certainly supports
the theory that the word 'curlew' describes the call--at least in the
imagination of some poets. The poem is 'The White Giant's Thigh" and in it
Dylan Thomas muses on the creative/destructive energies of the rising tide
at a Welsh Estuary.
--
Stephen Thomas
stype@sccoast.net
Aynor, SC