Albertus Magnus's early Upupa (Lapwing?) (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Here's a short question, re. a both familiar, and well-known, name (but maybe not as short to answer) ...

Even if pre-Linnaean (by far), clearly long, long before modern day's (post-1758) binary nomenclature, in this Book (published in around the early 1690s); The secrets of Albertus Magnus: of the vertues of herbs, stones, and certain beasts. Whereunto is newly added, a short discourse of the seven planets, governing the nativities of children. Also a book of the same author, of the marvellous things of the world, and of certain things, caused of certain beasts (here, and/alt. here, and here), we find the following short statement/claim:

Upupa | A Lapwing, or Black-Plover

... !?!

Unfortunately those scans are somewhat defective/fragmented, and as such somewhat hard to read (as well as to fully understand).

Either way, to me, this looks far away from today's (Eurasian) Hoopoe Upupa epops LINNAEUS 1758 (here), as "[Upupa] Epops".

Sure wonder what happened in between ... as I assume (read: take it for granted) that Linnaeus had read the Works by the Great Albertus Magnus [Graf/Count Albert zu/of Bollstädt (1206–1280)], who – way, way back (in the Dark/Middle ages) – in the year 1280, published one of the very First, if not The First, text about the Swedish Fauna (even if not listed among Linnaeus's references for "our" dear Hoopoe, of course).

Anyone who knows how (or why) the Latin Upupa swapped, jumped from the "Lapwing, or Black-Plover" ... into/onto today's Hoopoe?

Grateful for any help on this one.

Björn

 

[l_raty]

Albertus Magnus wrote in Latin, however, and the person responsible for this 'identification' must be some unnamed translator.

and/alt. here, and here

Original Latin text : here and here.
I see nothing in the original that would exclude the bird being the expected Hoopoe.

In De animalibus (here, albeit this version will undoubtedly be an easier read), Albertus wrote of the Upupa :

Upupa avis est nota dormiens in hyeme sicut et vespertilio: galeam de pennis habet in capite: toto alio corpore varia et pulcra: in hyeme latens muta: et in vere unius vocis clamosa:

Which means more or less: The upupa is a known bird sleeping in the winter, just like the bat: it has a helmet of feathers on the head: elsewhere its whole body is varied and beautiful: remaining silent in the winter: and in the spring shouting its unique call.

This does not suggest a lapwing to me.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

...

This does not suggest a lapwing to me.

Neither to me ... thanks!

 

[paranoid numanoid]

Neither to me ... thanks!

It could refer to either bird, I think!
Furthermore, there is a longstanding confusion between these two crested birds with broad wings, perhaps the one inheriting the folklore of the other in countries where only one occurs.

If we discount the first element of becoming torpid like a bat (which of course is not true of either bird), the lapwing certainly could be described as having a crest, having a beautiful (irridescent in the sun with purple and green) and varied body (could mean variegated, particoloured or pied, ie black and white - Turner in 1544 quotes Pliny talking about magpies as variae), it could be observed to be less noisy in winter, and in the warmer months calling loudly with its unique call.

Lockwood (1993) in his Oxford Dict. of Bird Names says under "Hoop 2" (p.84) "An obsolete name for the Hoopoe, sometimes transferred to the Lapwing on account of the remarkable crest common to both. It makes its debut in 1481 'The huppe or lapwynche is a byrd crested.' " This quote may be found in the OED but I've not checked.
He adds that the source is Old French huppe ultimately from Latin upupa, [I think also from the Greek], echoing the call-note heard as "up-up".

What he doesn't say is that in French the word huppe means "a crest"! This may be the source of the confusion.

Charles Swainson (1885) in his Provincial Names and Folklore of British Birds refers to this 'confusion' in the folklore, on p. 107 (how the Hoopoe, "like the Lapwing", has the reputation of being able to find hidden springs, perhaps from their habit of landing on the ground and bending the head to the ground, raising it in a jerky fashion, as if drinking; and p.186 where the bird absents itself from the convocation of the fowls called by Solomon, by visiting the Queen of Sheba, Swainson refers us back to the Hoopoe entry for a similar story.