[Leica] Why are these birds called boobies?

[leica at ralgo.nl (bruce golding)]

i only remember being amazed at the grace and agility, in flight, of  
these birds over the sea ............ after walking among them,  
trying not to miss-tread!
my guide was an old fisherman, who still delighted in the antics and  
told many a tale.

thanks all, for the additional information.

b.

On 6-mei-2009, at 1:15, Henning Wulff wrote:

> Between their wobbly gait on land and wide-eyed look, they do look  
> silly. On the other hand, as Doug mentioned they are amazing  
> flyers. The only fly in the ointment with the latter is that they  
> live together with frigate birds. Frigate birds, and especially the  
> Magnificent Frigate birds which are common on the Galapagos can do  
> aerial maneuvers that are hard to believe; they have the highest  
> wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird. They harass boobies and  
> tropicbirds until those drop the fish they just caught, and then  
> the frigate birds catch the fish before they hit the water. They  
> also rob each other, especially when a large heavy fish is the  
> prize. Frigate birds are like cormorants and anhingas; they don't  
> have water resistant feathers. They only dip into the water while  
> airborne.
>
> The boobies are also fantastic divers and swimmers. They might spy  
> a fish from 150ft. up, fold up into an arrow shape (their beak and  
> head work well for that) and dive straight into the water. They can  
> easily go down 40ft underwater, and swim after fish and catch them,  
> with a number of direction changes. The closely related gannets are  
> similar.
>
> It's quite an experience to be snorkeling and have some of these  
> blue footed, red footed and masked boobies dive down next to you  
> hitting the water at high speed and see them darting after fish.  
> One can only hope their aim is good.
>
>
>
> At 10:14 PM +0100 5/5/09, Peter Dzwig wrote:
>> The term booby still exists in (UK) english, although these days  
>> it would be
>> regarded as antiquated (like, for example, "popinjay". My 197x  
>> CHambers
>> Dictionary gives: " A lubberly lout; a stupid fellow; a boy at the  
>> bottom of his
>> class; a sea bird of the gannet tribe, absurdly easy to catch". I  
>> believe that
>> the name was given to the bird by the Spaniards because it was  
>> clumsy ("stupid")
>> on land and hence easy to catch.
>>
>> Peter Dzwig
>>
>> Tina Manley wrote:
>>>  At 02:32 PM 5/5/2009, you wrote:
>>>>  No, it's not sharp. But he didn't pose for any length of time.
>>>>
>>>>  http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hwulff/various/N- 
>>>> SA00-090430096.jpg.html
>>>
>>>
>>>  Hilarious - and perfectly illustrates the name.
>>>
>>>  From Wiki:  The name "booby" comes from the Spanish term bobo,  
>>> which
>>>  means "Stupid" or "Fool"/"Clown". This is because the Blue- 
>>> footed Booby
>>>  is clumsy on the land. Like other seabirds, they can be very
>>>  tame.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-footed_Booby#cite_note-0> 
>>> [1]
>>>
>>>  Tina
>>>
>>>  Tina Manley
>>>  www.tinamanley.com
>
>
> -- 
>
>    *            Henning J. Wulff
>   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
>  /###\   mailto:henningw at archiphoto.com
>  |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com
>
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