पृष्ठम्:Birds in Sanskrit literature.djvu/१६५

RAILS, CRAKES, MOORHENS, WATERCOCKS AND COOT Small in size. अम्बु कुनकुटिका, कुलवारी, चित्रांगक Waterhens proper पारिप्लव, जलकुक्कुट Waterhens including the Rails, Crakes and Coot जलकुक्कुट 58 of medium size White-breasted Moorhen waterhen कृष्णा- शुक्लकण्ठ दात्यूह, जलकुक्कुटी मेघराव, of large size Purple coot or Moorhen मंजुल दारयूह, जनरंकु दात्यूह राजीन, कमल. Coot कृष्णकारण्डव, जानवाद" सुमुब प्लव, Water-cock यष्टिक जल कुस्कुट, Note- The meaning of पारिप्तव (v.]. परि०) as जलकुक्कुट has been missed in ft. The commentators of the M.W. and other lexicons except and also have overlooked it. See para 9 of the article. 1. All these birds are comprised within the general term and possibly also fra in Sanskrit (para 9 below). The Rails and Crakes which resemble slim chickens are the smallest of the group and are much alike in their habits. They spend the day among reeds and rushes and come out to feed early mornings and late evenings. They are the arr-fem ( tiny water birds resembling a chicken) of सुश्रुत and अम्बकुक्कुटी of चरक, The Blue-breasted Banded Rail and the Banded Crake are the कुलवारी (कुल + वारि, frequenting water near the bank ?) or far (having painted bands on the body) of कल्पदुकोश :- "कुलवारी लघुः कृष्णः चित्राङ्गदः (चित्राङ्गक: ? ) " 2. The larger birds like the Moorhen, the Purple Moorhen, etc. are properly so called and each of them has one or more specific names as well. The Moorhen looks like a full-sized black chicken and is found 293 Rails, Crakes, Moorhens, Watercocks and Coot in the vicinity of thick cover near water, cultivated fields or gardens. It is the कृष्णा जलकुस्कुटी ("अथान्या जलकुक्कुटी कृष्णवर्णी") of कल्पद्रुकोश. 3. The White-breasted Waterhen, most remarkable for its "atrocious" and "roaring" calls, and named for this reason in and g, is one of the commonest water-birds of India, found wherever water is surrounded by a certain amount of thick cover. It is a dark coloured bird with white forehead, foreneck, breast and abdomen. 4. The Purple Moorhen is a large blue and purple-coloured bird with a red bill and shield and red legs and feet, found in reedy marshes and lotus-lakes, walking about over the partially submerged weeds and floating lotus leaves and "on the whole the bird is comparatively seldom seen un- less beaten out of cover." From its striking colour and size it is "one of the greatest ornainents of our marshes" and, it may be added, of our tanks with lotuses and reedy margins. Not quite so noisy as the White- breasted Waterhen, it has a variety of loud calls. It feeds on tender shoots of the lotus, other water-plants and on the rice crop. Sanskrit nomenclature for these two birds is closely allied with certain names for the Pea-cock, the Black-Ibis and the Hawk-Cuckoo and they are considered in the following paragraphs. 5. अत्यूह, नत्यूह, वायूह, and मुगूह, as bird-names of obscure etymology would seem to be inter-related in some way, the first three from root ag and the last from root, and an attempt is made here to distinguish and allocate the terms to their respective owners with the help of lexical synonymies not a few of which have sacrificed perspicuity for the sake of brevity. It may even be doubted whether the authors themselves had a clear idea of what they meant to define, and there is reason to believe that some of them at least have merely tried summarize and compress what they found in the older but more detailed lexicons. Or it may be that they proceeded on the assumption that the names were too common and well- known to call for any elucidation. (i) the Peacock and Hawk-Cuckoo : (a) अत्यूह, a प्रतुद bird in चरक corresponding to दात्यूह, in सुधृत is the Hawk-Cuckoo (Art. 37). (b) "अत्यूहस्तु मयूरे स्यादत्यूहानीलिकौषधो"-हेम, विश्व. (c) "अस्यूहा नीलिकायां स्त्री कालकण्ठखगे पुमान्"-मेदिनी. (d) अट्यूहः दात्यूहे, कालकण्ठके– शब्दार्थचिन्तामणि (e) -Peacock; gallinule-M. Williams. Ts in (c) and (d) is the Peacock and ag in (d) the Hawk-Cuckoo and Peacock. Both have a traditional relationship with the dark rain- cloud. If the one welcomes it with his loud calls, the other begs of it, equally vociferously, a few drops of water. It is interesting to note that e also means a rain-cloud. M. W.'s rendering of as a Gallinule can only refer to the Purple Moorhen as agt which means the indigo which yields the blue colour.