----- Original Message
-----
Sent: Monday,
September 18, 2000 9:22 PM
Subject: Re:
[tied] Re: Birds
----- In response to
-----
Sent: Monday,
September 18, 2000 7:38 PM
Subject: Re:
[tied] Re: Birds
Let me resend this, as the e-groups
server mutilated the original posting
(re: penguins and gulls and other Brythonic
waterfowl).
Ah, yes. But, ornithologically
speaking, these original "penguins" are more correctly called great auks and are
now extinct (and so rarer than the capercailzie). Which said, both etymologies
are beyond reproach.
"Coot" (as well as Dutch "koet") are
connected by some with Welsh
"cwtair"
(= "cwta + iar", literally
'short hen'). "Grebe" may be the same word as Welsh "crib" 'crest, comb; ridge'
(like Crib Goch in the Snowdon Horseshoe), derived from Breton via dialectal
French.
Piotr