more on early "jeeps"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 12/7/2011 7:53 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> .... Since I've been able to understand English, I've known _yardbird_
> as a BE word for "chicken" - cf. Charlie "Yardbird" Parker, renowned
> as a connoisseur of fried chicken - and, since I've been able to read,
> I've known it as G.I. jargon, like _goldbrick_, used During The War,
> but extinct by the time of my own career in the military ....

(1) Was the military yardbird basically likened to a domestic bird
(policing the camp for butts etc. like a pecking chicken), or what?

(2) Cf. Japanese "niwatori" = "chicken", < "niwa" (= "yard"/"garden") +
"tori" (= "bird").

(3) Among those who call a chicken a "yardbird", would other (similar)
poultry (e.g., guinea-fowl) qualify as "yardbirds" also?

-- Doug Wilson

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