🚀 go-pugleaf

 <Pine.GSO.4.03.9810220904520.1101-100000@rsuno.crn.cogs.susx.ac.uk>

Larry, thanks for elucidation. It seems from your readings that it shouldn't
be found in EH. It is interesting that Imanol should write a song about it.
Surely "wild cock" is just a  translation of Iratiko Basoilarra. The song
talks about its plumage and how it hides in the grass and is sought out by
hunters. I thought it might be some sought of partridge. Does anyone know if
there are any traditional stories associated with it?
jon


    Date:               Thu, 22 Oct 1998 09:10:08 +0100
    From:               Larry Trask <larryt@COGS.SUSX.AC.UK>

    On Thu, 22 Oct 1998, Jon Patrick wrote:

    > I asked
    > > Iratiko basoilarra - what might be the english name of this bird have?
    > Larry replied
    > Well, birds are hardly my strong suit.  But my dictionary tells me that
    > "basoilar" means "capercaillie", a kind of grouse.  "Irati" is the name
    > of a forest in the east of the country, so the title means "The
    > Capercaillie of Irati".
    >
    > I have just remembered I have the Biological dictionary of euskara which
    has
    > the entry
    >
    > Tetrao urogallus
    >
    > eus     basoilar
    > sp       urogallo
    > fren    grand te'tras
    > eng     capercaillie
    >
    > Can anyone give a more common english name for this bird?

    As far as I know, `capercaillie' is the only English name, and it's one
    that is quite familiar to me.  In Britain, the bird is found chiefly
    (only?) in Scotland, and the English name derives from Scots Gaelic
    <capull coille> `horse of the woods'.  The bird is found only in
    northern Europe, as far as I know, and so it won't have acquired a
    different English name elsewhere.  It's a kind of grouse, but none of my
    dictionaries gives any other name for it.  Aulestia suggests `wild cock'
    as another English name, but I don't know where he got that: it is not
    confirmed by my English dictionaries.


    Larry Trask
    COGS
    University of Sussex
    Brighton BN1 9QH
    UK

    larryt@cogs.susx.ac.uk

Jon
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