At 08:35 AM 12/31/98 -0800, Edwin Lamb wrote:
>Tweets,
>
>Hey guys, why not use the word 'eyebrow' instead of 'supercillium? It
>has fewer letters and more people know what it means.

Well, I've never seen a bird with an eyebrow, which I've always were those
hairy things over my eyes, though my dictionary informs me it also refers
to the bony arch over the eye upon which that hair grows.

Birds don't have hair, and the supercillium, as far as I know, is just
a plumage mark with no skeletal feature underlying it, so the term
"eyebrow" would seem doubly inaccurate.

Having said that, when teaching beginners certainly plenty of folks
have colloquially refered to the supercillium as the "eyebrow", I'm
sure.


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net