02-09-03 23:22, alex wrote:
> The birds are mostly named because of other properties but not
> because of the colour.
Really? So names like "blackbird", "(robin) redbreast" and "greylag" are
atypical?
> Question: is there in any other IE language the story about the babies
> which are beared to the parents by a certain stork and if yes, where /
> when was attested first time this story?
I think this nursery myth originated somewhere in Germany, but I have no
idea when it was recorded for the first time. By the way, what's the
traditional attitude to storks in your contry? In Poland, which has the
largest population of them, being the nesting home of about 25% of the
world's white storks, they enjoy universal sympathy and are completely
synanthropic, always nesting on roofs, chimneys or specially prepared
poles (with lowercase p), and returning to them every spring. As far as
I know, it has "always" been so, and there's a tradititional prohibition
against disturbing or harming storks. Destroying the nest of a pair of
storks would be comparable in its odiousness to shooting an albatross. I
wonder if this is something local or more widespread.
Piotr