"Pares cum paribus facillime congrgantur" Birds of a feather flock together. The word 'pares' may mean birds; however it could also mean "like things" congregate together". Several reports of Northern Parulas in area. Therefore: I give you a word. I learned more aabout this very small, beautiful bird than I did about its name. It has been a while since the last BIRD WORD. The reason: I had troube with this word. My sources: Oxford English Dictionsay ; Collins Latin Dictionary ; Bailey & Neidrach: Birds of Colorado; Arthur Cleveland Bent: Life Histories of North American Birds; Andrews & Righter, Colorado Birds ; Roger Tory Peterson:s Field Guide to Westers Birds (1941)m and all over the spectrum on Google Joel .Caarl Welty. The Life of Birds , 1962. And, thanks to Jo & Ferd Dirckx: Dictionary of American Bird Names. Latin "parus' for titmouse, "ula" for little. Along that line, chickadees and bushtits are included in the Parus family. Bent: (1953) "I have always preferred the old name, Blue yelow-backed warbler , as originally used by Wilson and Audubon , to the modern common name; the old descriptive name used by Wilson and Audubon;, the Blue Yellow-backed Warbler , seems more appropriate than Parula for these beautiful birds." Bailey & Neidrach: A mention is made of Bent's comments of the bird's name and his preference for 'Blue Yellow-backed Warbler'. As an aside: Bailey & Neidrach (1965),, "Possibly the little Parula Warbler wanders into Colorado more often than the records indicate. They are so small that they could be overlooked, especially as often they migrate through the upper stories of the deciduous forestrs in mixed flocks of several species." Collins Latin Dictionary : (obviously, I could use a more complete one). par: alike, a match, a pair, companion, parra: an owl.. Many of the places I looked gave the defiition of par as the "titmouse". Ther. e are lots of different 'tits' around the world, and, may be , they lumped them in with other small, similar birds. Chickadees, titmouse, " Somewhere dluring all this "referencing", I found a simple "par = bird". I liked that one, but now I cannot find which of the wild dictionaries I used on the internet, not can I find my notation. Oxford English Dictionary usually comes throgh with an answer to many of the derivation mysteries. I liked onw: "a matched set of jewels worn as a necklacee of decoration on an alb of a priest. We had "alb" when we looked at "albatross." However, this could also be meaning "alike things". Conclusion: "Parula": par = l bird; ula = little; therefore Parula - small bird (I'd like to add 'with necklace'). By the way. Paridae, Parul.idae? Chickadees - Paridae, Parulas - Parulidae. Same family/genus/order? Share your comments with other Co-birds. Mary Jane Black Denver -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
