Trade Secrets

[TisILeclerc]

[hvered]

Might singing and whistling be connected to flocking? Solitary animals presumably have little reason to 'project' their voices except when necessary such as seeking a mate or defending territory.

It's difficult to know if waterfowl would live in large or small groups 'in a state of nature'. Certainly swan colonies aren't a natural phenomenon so perhaps flocks of geese are arose from domestication.

[hvered]

[TisILeclerc]

Problem is lots of geese are migratory. They fly in from Russia or Canada. I'm sure if they wanted to sing they would with nobody to stop them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAo3X_BZLro


Peewits don't have much of a 'song' either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgOXeMj4ryM

[hvered]

[hvered]

Anglo-Saxonists say swan comes from Anglo-Saxon. It doesn't.

German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish origins are all in the frame but etymologists to a man come up with the less than plausible meaning of 'singing bird'. Mind, they do add 'probably'. It may be that cygnus is similar enough to 'sing' to have led to a conflation, but no-one suggests this connection.

[Mick Harper]

[Boreades]

[Boreades]

[Boreades]