Journal of a Sabbatical

April 14, 2000

125 names

Today's Reading: Uttermost Part of the Earth by E. Lucas Bridges, Cat on the Scent by Rita Mae Brown, April 14 journal entries from the Thoreau Home Page web site - how on earth did H.G. O. Blake compile his seasonal editions of Thoreau's journals without computerized searches and word processing? And why on earth did he end spring on April 11 and not start summer until June? May is one of the best months to live in Massachusetts.

Today's Starting Pitcher:
Brian Rose

Brian Rose wasn't that good tonight. Sox lost 13 to 5 or something excessive like that.

More Thoreau secret decoder ring entries:

crow blackbird

common grackle - this is another one of those "splits and lumps" as the American Birding Association calls them. The bird that Thoreau called crow blackbird was also called bronze grackle. The bronze grackle and the purple grackle used to be considered separate species

fish hawk

osprey (OK, so I already knew this one)

marsh hawk

northern harrier - actually a lot of people still call it a marsh hawk, that's what I was told it was when I was a kid

Infusoria

n. formerly, a large group consisting of most of the microorganisms found in decayed matter and stagnant water
Thoreau describes looking at some navicula and some dumbbell shaped Infusoria under a microscope. Navicula, which would now be spelled navicular in English, means boat-shaped. I can only assume dumbbells then looked pretty much like they do now.

Benzoin

any of a number of species of laurel, probably spicebush

For some reason, Thoreau calls a flicker a flicker today instead of a pigeon woodpecker. The flicker has a plethora of common names. Forbush claims:

It is said that it is known in various parts of the country by fully 125 common names. Country people are almost everywhere familiar with the bird. - Forbush, Natural History of the Birds of Eastern and Central North America

Some of them are:

1. flicker
2. pigeon woodpecker
3. golden winged woodpecker
4. high-hole
5. wake-up
6. harrywicket
7. gaffer woodpecker
8. yellow hammer

That's not nearly 125, so let's have a little reader participation here. Send me the names by which the northern flicker, Colaptes auratus, is known in your bioregion at jegan@world.std.com