88 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Flanders in the winter time to the coasts of Languedoc. 

 For I believe there was scarce ever seen about Flanders a 

 bird of this kind." The ancients reckoned the tongue of 

 this bird among the choicest dainties. The belief that the 

 Flamingo stands against its conically-shaped nest, with 

 its rump covering the eggs, instead of sitting on the nest, 

 appears to date from Dampier's observations of the American 

 species in Curacao in the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century. It is not until recent times that it has been 

 conclusively settled that they sit with the legs folded 

 under the body in the usual manner. 



FLAMMANT : The FLAMINGO (q.v.). 



FLAPPER. The young of the MALLARD before taking wing, 

 after which they are called Wild Ducks. The term is also 

 applied to the young of other wild species of duck. 



FLAT-BILLED SANDPIPER. Macgillivray's name for the BROAD- 

 BILLED SANDPIPER. 



FLAT FINCH : The BRAMBLING. (Cheshire.) 



FLAX : The WHITETHROAT. (Shropshire.) 



FLAX-FINCH: The CHAFFINCH (Tunstall, 1784): "Fleck 

 Linnet " is still in use in South Holderness. 



FLEINGALL : The KESTREL. (Provincial.) Swainson makes 

 it an equivalent of Windhover (i.e. " Fly in Gale "). 



FLESH CROW: The CARRION-CROW. (Yorkshire.) From 

 its fondness for carrion. 



FLIRT-TAIL : The REDSTART. (Ackworth, Yorkshire.) 



FLITTERCHACK : The RING-OUZEL. (Orkneys.) 



FLUSHER: The RED-BACKED SHRIKE. (Obsolete.) Wil- 

 lughby (1678) records it as a Yorkshire name. Newton 

 thinks it should be " Flesher," a common North Country 

 word for butcher, and it is also sometimes spelt " Flasher." 



FLYCATCHER : The SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. (Pennant.) 

 FOLK : The RAZORBILL. Occurs in Martin's " Voyage to St. 

 Kilda." 



FOOLISH DOTTEREL : The DOTTEREL. For explanation of 

 the term " foolish," see under DOTTEREL. 



FOOLISH GUILLEMOT : The COMMON GUILLEMOT. (Fleming. ) 

 From the indifference to the approach of man when breeding. 



FOOLISH SPARROW: The HEDGE-SPARROW. From its so 

 frequently being made the dupe of the CUCKOO. 



FOOL'S COAT : The GOLDFINCH. According to Sir Thomas 

 Browne this was an old name of the species, the inference 



