Eiderduck is a kind of duck. :-) Traditionally, supplier of the softest filling you can get for your pillow; eiderdown. Nesting many places in Europe, including Norway, Scotland and Iceland. http://www.tringa.no/pages/gallerier/galleri-fugler/aerfugl.html
There's a couple of North American relatives too, I think... Jostein ----------------------------- Pictures at: http://oksne.net ----------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 3:36 AM Subject: Re: OT: While we're on language, have a collective noun won't ya.. > > Hmm Ern, isn't an eider a type of duck? I just went to check and the one I > > was looking for was 'a flush of ducks'. It's more fascinating then I thought > > it'd be- I did a Yahoo search on "collective noun" and ducks > > and got > > http://www.nzbirds.com/Collective.html > > & > > http://www.sentex.net/~tntcomm/kwfn/numbers.htm > > and I must say it's a bountiful poet's resource! One for ducks was "a > > badelynge of ducks" and I have no clue what a badelynge or a badling is, but > > ooh.. :) And one I thought was fascinating, "an RSVP of egrets". Wouldn't > > have thought of it in a million years! 2 more entries in my bookmarks.. Btw, > > Tom- "a plague of photographers" alliterative and apt! > > > > Cheers, > > Ryan > > > I remember "eider" as a collective from years ago; I recall noticing that it > was the same as a variety of duck. But -- the site I found with some of these > interesting terms > http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/help/faq/animals/names.htm > didn't have "eider". > The Concise Oxford didn't back me up, "eider"; so I can only assume > that "eider" I remember it wrong, or was given wrong information Way Back When > by some source. Probably a substandard textbook. > :-) >
