Single-handed (but together we're strong . . .) (1 Viewer)

Paging through a voluminous English-Persian dictionary (Steingass, 1892, 4th. imp. 1957) I found under jaftak = A heron, this miraculous "species" (p.365):
"Jaftak juftak, A sort of bird that is said to have but one wing, on the opposite side to which the male has a hook, and the female a ring, so that when they fly they are joined, and separate only when they are on the ground."

Made me think of a tandem, the type of broad bicycle for two persons who need each other's physical strength and company to move in a straight and safe way. There is also a Dutch term "luchtfietserij" (air-bicycling) = to think up fantastic/impossible activities and goals . . .
By the way, in the modern western world one would rather suppose that the female would be equipped with a hook, but this Jaftak-Juftak must belong in ancient Persian mythology.
Jaftak is not the modern Iranian name for heron, which is given as Havasil. Etymology for both terms undiscovered, I am sorry for that.
Cheers, Jan van der Brugge

Maybe arabic spelling of any help?

Guten Abend, Martin,
Thank you very much for your reaction. The Persian dictionary which I mentioned, has Arabic spelling of course, next to the western one, and for my book Birds of Iran I can say the same, but I have no intention right now for investigations in etymology of such names. Well, it is a challenge, and might be quite fascinating, but I think much of it is still slippery ground for me; I am not even familiar with the writing and reading yet.
I found the Hindustani Babur-Nama (Memoirs of Babur) in English a few days ago; there is a footnote on p.497 to this passage: "The quail (P.budana) is another. It is not peculiar to Hindustan but four or five kinds are so. - One is that which goes to our countries (Tramontana), larger and more spreading than the (Hindustan) quail. - Another kind (7) is smaller than the one first named. Its primaries and tail are reddish. It flies in flocks like the chir (Phasianus Wallichii)." The footnote 7 says: Perhaps Perdicula argunda, the rock bush-quail, which flies im small coveys. Sic, that's all, alas. Much of the original text is quite vaguely formulated, so identification of species is often suggested by the translator in footnotes. So it did not help with argunda; I am going to study the other bird names (also P.budana, see above); however, they are of course quite exotic and out of date.
Cheers, guten Erfolg,
Jan van der Brugge

Counting the limbs

Earlier today I watched the wonderful documentary which a Spanish team has put on video of the Andalusian Buttonquail, see the message of carlines1969 of this date. There are 15 Buttonquial species, and Andalusian is a subspecies of the widespread Turnix sylvaticus (Africa, Asia), but the loss of a subspecies can not be just restored from the species no specimens elsewhere. (That is a problem with Black Grouse here in the Netherlands, where only one locality of that bird is left)
Somewhere in the text I saw the name Coturnix triunguis. This must be quite an old name, maybe of Rajus or one of his contemporary colleagues. Buttonquails are in the genus Turnix, family Turnicidae, and they are not gallinaceous birds. I recommend the documentary, it is fascinating to see this species in its biotope.
By the way, I remember that words like quail, grouse and other "huntable species" had no plural form in English; evidently this grammatical rule is not valid for ornithological matters.

The name Coturnix triunguis means: three-clawed quail. It made me think of counting limbs and giving figures in species descriptions. Of course this bird won't have three claws, it has six. In some body features the term elements bi-, tri- etc. are correct: tricollaris, bicinctus, but in limbs this is tricky. (it would be like the mythic bird of my topic "Single-handed". . . See the first examples of the names with -onyx: monorthonyx, Greek for: one straight claw. We can suppose this bird, if in healthy state, has two of them.
Of course we all know what is meant by the author publishing such names, yet it is remarkable that some bird of paradise received the name sexfilata, = wearing 6 threads, while it certainly has three threads on each side of its body or tail.
Well, this is not all too serious, anyway it was a good vehicle to point to the Buttonquail documentary. If any person of that team would read this message, my sincere compliments, I enjoyed it, only the spoken Spanish was "un poco demasiado rápido" for my ears.
Gracias, buen éxito, also for the Buttonquail's expectations!
Jan van der Brugge

monorthonyx (Anurophasis)
Nomonyx
orthonyx
Plectronyx
Smilonyx
Stringonyx
Tribonyx

UNGUIS
triunguis (Coturnix): possessing three claws (on every leg, of course . . .)
Cultrunguis: Lat. culter = a knife
Uncirostrum

janvanderbrugge said:

By the way, I remember that words like quail, grouse and other "huntable species" had no plural form in English; evidently this grammatical rule is not valid for ornithological matters.

Click to expand...

Just so. And likewise one could say "Three fishes" when referring to three species of fish. (And the Bible refers to "loaves and fishes" as well, I don't have an explanation for that.)

And I'm not sure whether mammalogists would say "two deers" if they were talking about two species of deer.