janvanderbrugge
Well-known member
SUNNY BIRD, RAISE YOUR VOICE IN LAUD AND PRAISE!
In an earlier topic I have mentioned the name Rzaczynski, because I was puzzled if this Polish classical author had named certain bird species after Roman authors. Laurent Raty brought my lofty fantasy back down to earth, but I had found a wonderful description in Gabriel Rzaczynski’s work “Historia naturalis curiosa regni Poloniae” (curious natural history of the kingdom of Poland).
Older song and poetry lovers might know these lines by Shakespeare: “Lo here the gentle Lark, weary of rest from his moist cabinet mounts up on high, and wakes bright the morning from whose silver breast the sun ariseth in true majesty.” (and the wonderful music to this by Henry Bishop). Now, reading what Rcaczynski wrote in 1721, one could wonder if a Lark who knew about this, wouldn’t think twice before uttering its song again, for fear of lowering the standard . . . Rcaczynski was a monk and could have described this song as a bird’s style of praising the Lord; yet his words are more poetry than prayer.
”Alauda non cristata. Aldrovando, & Gesnero. Germ. Lerch, nobis Skoronék, cælipeta dicta, quia in sublime retrogradu volatu se attollere solita. Cantillat nonnisi sereno cælo, ubi verò pluviæ, aliæq; intemperies
àéris ingruunt, altum tenet silentium; unde oritur lemma, cælo canora sereno. Eadem avis dum in terra moratur, nihil suavioris vocis edit, juxta observationem Bercorii in Reduct.Moral. ubi verò in altum evolaverit, mox in amænissimos cantus erumpit: imè quanto sublimiore volatur fertur in àéra, tanto cantilenas suaviores efformat.”
My effort to keep up the level in translating: ”Lark without a crest, “heaven-flier” because it usually extolls itself in sublime climbing. It just performs it song, however, when the heavens are bright, while at rainy periods and overclouded skies it keeps a thorough silence; therefore the saying goes ‘songs at serene heavens’. As long as this same bird stays on the earth, it emits nothing of its lovely sounds, but once it rises in flight, it soon bursts out in the sweetest of songs, and ever as it mounts higher up, the melodies it performs are growing in loveliness.”
Heavenly names were also given by Pallas (coelipeta) and Swinhoe (coelivox), and Hodgson has an Alauda dulcivox.
In Holland its final song has not been sung, but the frequency has gone, the only number of any importance is in the migrating visitors from abroad. Its Crested relative already stopped singing in my country long ago, so we now enjoy the presence of the quite sonorous Wood Lark, and, in winter, Shore Larks at the coast, in song lockdown.
Remarkable things haven been written about the vernacular names:
”Den Namen ”Lerche” (Larike, Lewerike, englisch Lark) hat man bald von der Stimme der Feldlerche abgeleitet, bald auf einen Aberglauben germanischer Völker zurückgeführt.” (Kleinschmidt, Singvögel der Heimat, p.20: = The name has sometimes been derived from the voice of the Songlark, or else again from superstition among Germanic tribes) On p.18 of this work Kleinschmidt added a footnote to Alauda arvensis: “Alauda = Lerche, eigentlich Haubenlerche. Das Wort ist keltisch, angeblich von al = hoch und (l)aud = Gesang = die Hochsingende. Eine gallische Legion führte wegen ihrer Helmbüsche und ihrer Heimat diesen keltischen Namen, und die Soldaten dieses Regiments hiessen ”die Haubenlerchen”. So wurde der fremde Name lateinisch und schliesslich wissenschaftlich.” = Alauda = lark, properly crested lark. The word is Celtic, probably from al = high and (l)aud = chant = the high-chanting. A Gallic legion bore this name because of their helmet bushes and their home country, and the soldiers of this regiment were called “the Crested Larks”. Thus the foreign name became Latin and eventually scientific.”
Lavroc in: Richard’s Lavroc - Coridala Richardi, Tawny Lavroc - Coridala fusca C.T.Wood, The Ornithological Guide, 1835: old English term for Lark, related to German ”Lerche” and Dutch ”Leeuwerik”.
Spanish has the name Alondra, obviously from Alauda, and Italian has Allodola or Lodola, French has Alouette, but curiously, the Portuguese vernacular name is Laverca.
Scrabble and hybrid names to Alauda: alaudinus (Passerculus, Passerculus sandwichensis, Phrygilus), alaudina (Coryphistera), alaudipes (Alaemon), Alaudala, Alaudo, Alaudula, Calendulauda, Certhilauda, Nigrilauda, Plocealauda, Pyrgilauda, Pyrrhulauda, Saxilauda, Spizalauda.
Enjoy, Jan van der Brugge
In an earlier topic I have mentioned the name Rzaczynski, because I was puzzled if this Polish classical author had named certain bird species after Roman authors. Laurent Raty brought my lofty fantasy back down to earth, but I had found a wonderful description in Gabriel Rzaczynski’s work “Historia naturalis curiosa regni Poloniae” (curious natural history of the kingdom of Poland).
Older song and poetry lovers might know these lines by Shakespeare: “Lo here the gentle Lark, weary of rest from his moist cabinet mounts up on high, and wakes bright the morning from whose silver breast the sun ariseth in true majesty.” (and the wonderful music to this by Henry Bishop). Now, reading what Rcaczynski wrote in 1721, one could wonder if a Lark who knew about this, wouldn’t think twice before uttering its song again, for fear of lowering the standard . . . Rcaczynski was a monk and could have described this song as a bird’s style of praising the Lord; yet his words are more poetry than prayer.
”Alauda non cristata. Aldrovando, & Gesnero. Germ. Lerch, nobis Skoronék, cælipeta dicta, quia in sublime retrogradu volatu se attollere solita. Cantillat nonnisi sereno cælo, ubi verò pluviæ, aliæq; intemperies
àéris ingruunt, altum tenet silentium; unde oritur lemma, cælo canora sereno. Eadem avis dum in terra moratur, nihil suavioris vocis edit, juxta observationem Bercorii in Reduct.Moral. ubi verò in altum evolaverit, mox in amænissimos cantus erumpit: imè quanto sublimiore volatur fertur in àéra, tanto cantilenas suaviores efformat.”
My effort to keep up the level in translating: ”Lark without a crest, “heaven-flier” because it usually extolls itself in sublime climbing. It just performs it song, however, when the heavens are bright, while at rainy periods and overclouded skies it keeps a thorough silence; therefore the saying goes ‘songs at serene heavens’. As long as this same bird stays on the earth, it emits nothing of its lovely sounds, but once it rises in flight, it soon bursts out in the sweetest of songs, and ever as it mounts higher up, the melodies it performs are growing in loveliness.”
Heavenly names were also given by Pallas (coelipeta) and Swinhoe (coelivox), and Hodgson has an Alauda dulcivox.
In Holland its final song has not been sung, but the frequency has gone, the only number of any importance is in the migrating visitors from abroad. Its Crested relative already stopped singing in my country long ago, so we now enjoy the presence of the quite sonorous Wood Lark, and, in winter, Shore Larks at the coast, in song lockdown.
Remarkable things haven been written about the vernacular names:
”Den Namen ”Lerche” (Larike, Lewerike, englisch Lark) hat man bald von der Stimme der Feldlerche abgeleitet, bald auf einen Aberglauben germanischer Völker zurückgeführt.” (Kleinschmidt, Singvögel der Heimat, p.20: = The name has sometimes been derived from the voice of the Songlark, or else again from superstition among Germanic tribes) On p.18 of this work Kleinschmidt added a footnote to Alauda arvensis: “Alauda = Lerche, eigentlich Haubenlerche. Das Wort ist keltisch, angeblich von al = hoch und (l)aud = Gesang = die Hochsingende. Eine gallische Legion führte wegen ihrer Helmbüsche und ihrer Heimat diesen keltischen Namen, und die Soldaten dieses Regiments hiessen ”die Haubenlerchen”. So wurde der fremde Name lateinisch und schliesslich wissenschaftlich.” = Alauda = lark, properly crested lark. The word is Celtic, probably from al = high and (l)aud = chant = the high-chanting. A Gallic legion bore this name because of their helmet bushes and their home country, and the soldiers of this regiment were called “the Crested Larks”. Thus the foreign name became Latin and eventually scientific.”
Lavroc in: Richard’s Lavroc - Coridala Richardi, Tawny Lavroc - Coridala fusca C.T.Wood, The Ornithological Guide, 1835: old English term for Lark, related to German ”Lerche” and Dutch ”Leeuwerik”.
Spanish has the name Alondra, obviously from Alauda, and Italian has Allodola or Lodola, French has Alouette, but curiously, the Portuguese vernacular name is Laverca.
Scrabble and hybrid names to Alauda: alaudinus (Passerculus, Passerculus sandwichensis, Phrygilus), alaudina (Coryphistera), alaudipes (Alaemon), Alaudala, Alaudo, Alaudula, Calendulauda, Certhilauda, Nigrilauda, Plocealauda, Pyrgilauda, Pyrrhulauda, Saxilauda, Spizalauda.
Enjoy, Jan van der Brugge
