Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Page 44

52
Postscript to The Faroese Bird NameS
to the remarkable tail e. g. Spitzschwanz, or else to the
remarkable voice e. g. Póler Nachtigall — from the Island
of Poel. These will be the two most general features about
the duck likely to give rise to a name. In connection with
the latter we may compare a Scottish Gaelic name for this
bird: lacha bhinn ‘musical duck’, the sound of the ducks’
chorus being likened to the skirl of the bagpipes (cf. C.
Fergusson, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness,
XII, p. 79).
Prestur
The use of Far. prestur lit. ‘priest’ as a name for the
puffin lundi, known from Mohr’s Dictionary, was compared
to a similar development in Icelandic (Faroese Bird Names,
p. 79), cf. also Icel. prófastur lit. ‘archdeacon’ in the same
sense. I omitted to mention a report in K. Williamson,
The Atlantic Islands, 1948, according to which lundi had
been used as a fisherman’s noa term for priest; no further
particulars are given.
As for a possibly wider context for the entry of the
puffin into holy orders, one might compare the French
name for the species macareux moine and the scientific
fratercula (also mormon).
Other names, purely Faroese:
Pli n. ‘gull chick’. Onomatopoeic, cf. pli ‘call of a gull
chick’.
Vendingarfuglur m. ‘stormy petrel’. A name from Hov:
vending ‘change of currents’; the bird was said to be seen
most when the current was changing (M. A. Jacobsen—
Chr. Matras, Føroysk-Donsk Orðabók2, 1961).
ÚRTAK
Omanfyristandandi grein bøtir um ávísar samantøkur í The Faroese
Bird Names, Færoensia V, 1961. Við at draga fram nýggjar upplýsingar