On Wed, 13 Mar 1996 dbuckley at wolfenet.com wrote:

> Tweets:
> I wanted to first get my new address out to the list and second try a
> diversionary quiz for those inclined. I recently bought a 1943 book by
> Francis Kortright titled "The Ducks, Geese & Swans of North America: A Vade
> Mecum for the Naturalist and the Sportsman". It's an interesting book that
> covers waterfowl in a Bent-like way (He quotes liberally from Bent) with a
> duck hunter's perspective as well (i.e., how each species tastes). Anyway,
> in each species account he gives a list of colloquial names and I thought it
> might be fun to put a short list together to see how those in Tweeterdom
> fare with a few choice selections. Some of these are easy, some are pretty
> out there. So, here are 13 colloquial names:

David--

Thanks for posting this quiz. It was great fun on *Bird Talk*
tonight as Michael and I had callers phone in their answers.
Here's how we came out at the end of the radio show:


>
> hard-headed broadbill -- Redhead
> hairyhead -- Red Breasted Merganser
> blue-streak -- Blue Winged Teal ?
> hell's chicken -- Bufflehead ?
> butterball -- Bufflehead
> whistler -- Common Goldeneye / Whistling Swan
> bluebill -- Ruddy Duck
> summer duck -- Lesser Scaup
> spoony -- Northern Shoveler
> white brant -- Snow Goose
> patch-head coot -- Surf Scoter
> red-headed bullneck -- Canvasback
> pheasant duck -- pintail
>

This was great fun and got callers interested in responding on air.
Scott Morrison gave us an assist confirming some of our notions..

Don't be too anxious on giving out the answers, David. This is
great fun and it will be interesting to see how the Tweets
respond...and stay out of those used bookstores, would'ja :)

Tom