A piteousness of doves
A poetic collective noun, evoking the soothing cooing of the birds of peace, one of the gentlest sounds in nature (or...
Athene’s disguise
Here Zeus spurs Athene to intervene in the Trojan war, and she descends to earth in the guise of a glorious soaring hawk, nose-diving. See also the bestellar reviews, complete with rich quote-mosaics, of Adam Nicolson’s magnificent Why Homer Matters, and...
Croodle
‘Where pigeons sat and croodled.’ A cooing cosy word for a bird, but also meaning to snuggle up, nestle in, cuddle or crouch, for love or warmth. Source: Henry Williamson, Tarka the Otter: His joyful water-life and death in the two rivers, illus. C.F....
Crisp-winged flies
A symbiosis of hovering birds and fly-pestered bullocks, the darting martins hoovering up bothersome crisp-winged flies. ‘Martins twittered along the river-bank, and hovered about the heads of bullocks, taking crisp-winged flies from their muzzles and between...
As silent as …
Another simile for silence, here combined murderously with talons sharp as black frost. See other silent similes by Williamson and by Charlotte Bronte. ‘Silent as snow and fog, staring like the Northern Lights, taloned like black frost, the Arctic Owl flew over...
Whippering
‘… the whippering cries of golden plover.’ This seems to be a Williamson coinage to describe the cry of a bird. I haven’t found it in the Big Fat OED, source of all (English) words. See also ‘stitter’ and ‘chitter’....
Wait your turn!
This observation of a family of swallows over 150 years ago struck me, along with another surprising tale by Thoreau. Apart from the impressive behaviour of the birds on both counts, in reading these immediate, living accounts, I wonder whether Thoreau had any idea...
Airborne support
This touching account in Thoreau’s journal has a swallow, injured by a shot from a gun, being given airborne support by another swallow. The duly contrite swallow-sniper thereafter showed reverence towards these lovely small birds. I hope the injured one...
Crackey, ackymal and ruddock
‘The crackeys and ackymals and ruddocks – Devon names for wrens and tomtits and robins …’ All words for birds, delightful Devon names of which only ‘ruddock’ appears in the OED. Glad to feature the other two lest they fall into...
Chakker
‘… other noises were mingled with the chakkering.’ In this form, I couldn’t find this word in the OED, but assume it might be related to ‘chack’ and ‘chacking’, a mainly Scottish verb meaning: ‘To snap with the...
Chitter
‘Hearing them, an ackymal that had been searching the streamside hawthorn boughs for green caterpillars flittered to the islet and chittered beside the crackey.’ An alternative to ‘twitter’, ‘chirp’ or ‘chatter’. I...
Stitter
‘Robins ticked at him, wrens stittered.’ Perhaps another sound imitation coined by Williamson? His slim account of an otter’s joyous life and valiant death has a number of words evoking bird and otter sounds, several of which don’t occur in...
