erm OC gece BeORN, ob UL Ryle N 9 
How Do You Pronounce It? 
bie bo hie ORD 
THE NAMES of most of our North American birds present few problems of 
pronunciation. Ornithologists, of course, are not much concerned whether 
one reports a mer’ganser or a mergan’ser, but many people like to be correct 
and so we venture a list of species the names of which are frequently 
mispronounced. 
Petrel, properly accented on the first syllable, is pronounced with both 
vowels short. Many say pete-rel. 
Fulmar, accented on the first syllable, is fool (oo as in foot) -mar. 
Egret is ee’gret, and not ee-gret’. 
Sora does not rhyme with Laura. The o is as in so. 
Dowitcher is accented on the first syllable, which rhymes with cow. 
Jaeger, German for hunter, is pronounced yager or jager, with the first 
syllable accented. 
Murre rhymes with cur. 
Vireo. Accent the first syllable, the i being short. 
Grackle. Accent the first syllable, which rhymes with rack and not 
with rake. 
Grosbeak. Think of twelve dozen and say gross, accenting the word. 
Redpoll. Accent red and pronounce the last syllable pole. 
Towhee. You may saw tow-(to rhyme with cow) or toe. The accent 
is on the first syllable. 
The names of several birds of the Southwest are not familiar to many 
people. Let us see what we can do with them. 
Aplomado falcon. A Spanish word carrying the accent on the penulti- 
mate. Both a’s are broad as in father. 
Chachalaca. A Mexican-Spanish word. Accent on the penultimate. 
First and third a’s are broad; second and fourth short. 
Phainopepla. Not fane’-o-pepla but fa-i-no-pep’la. First a as in senate, 
i long and lightly accented, and pep with the primary accent. 
Jacana. According to Webster the word is Portuguese and is pro- 
nounced jak’-a-na, first two a’s short and last broad. The accent is on the 
first syllable. The Spanish say ha-ka-na, all a’s broad and the first syllable 
accented. But the A. O. U. Checklist gives the name with the c as in facade 
and the authorized pronunciation is ja-sa-na, with all the a’s broad and the 
accent on the second syllable. 
Ani. Crossword puzzlers often say ay-nye, though properly it is ah-nee, 
accented on.the first syllable. 
Becard. Sometimes we hear be-card’ instead of bek’-ard. 
Verdin. Accent the first syllable and say ver’-din. 
Pyrrhuloxia is pir-o-lok-sia. All the vowels are short. Accent lok. 
Parauque. A. O. U. list spells it “paurauque” but this may be a typo- 
graphical error. Webster gives the pronunciation as pah-rou’-kay, with the 
accent on the rou (rhyming with cow). 
