On Mon, 14 Aug 1995, Ellen Blackstone wrote:

> On Mon, 14 Aug 1995, Jon Anderson wrote:
>
> > ......Suspending the net above the pond creates a visual barrier to
> > these "shitepokes".....
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Wow, Jon--you've just reminded me of one more of those "popular" bird
> names that we've discussed before. I grew up in Iowa, and knew the
> American Bittern by the name "shitepoke." // So where did YOU grow up,
> Jon? Anyone else know either the heron or the bittern by this name? Where
> did this come from? --EB

Ellen,

I'm afraid to even *begin* to learn the etymology of the word "shitepoke".

I was reared in the Willamette Valley, Oregon by a family descended of
the 1840s pioneers from Ohio/Missouri. Most of the locals (including my
college-educated father) I knew referred to herons as shitepokes. Great
Blue Heron was just a "book name" for the birds.

I'd not heard of bitterns referred to as such. But, when I worked in
Wisconsin in the fall of '78, I heard an old-timer refer to the Sandhill
Cranes as "Red Shitepokes". I asked him about the term, and he had grown
up in Minnesota.

Common names like this are the reason that the AOU must have felt
compelled to establish "official" common names for the birds. I usually
call the above-mentioned bird "Great Blue Heron", and sometimes lapse
into "shitepoke", but I doubt I'll ever call it a "GBHE" except on some
officious data form.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov