hoary spoonbill

[David Wright]

I'm interested in documenting this, especially since quecholli is the name
of a twenty-day ritual period and I just wrote an article comparing Nahuatl
and Otomi calendrical terms. It's too late to modify the article, but the
same information is part of a book in progress.

Both Torquemada (cited in a previous post) and Sahagún (Florentine Codex,
book 11, chapter 2, paragraph 1) say that teoquechol and tlauhquechol are
different names for the same bird, that this bird is aquatic and that it has
a ducklike beak, among other characteristics. Both descriptions match the
roseate spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja) better than the flamingo (Phoenicopterus
ruber), especially the part about the beak. So I have two questions for Fran
and the rest of the listeros:

1. Could the flamingo identification of the word quecholli come from the
fact that Spaniards of the early colonial period called the roseate
spoonbill "ave flamenca"? (The only documented case of this that I have is
the Torquemada quote.)

2. Is there evidence for identifying the teoquechol or tlauhquechol, or any
other bird with quechol(li) in its Nahuatl name, with Phoenicopterus ruber
rather than Ajaia ajaja, other than the word "flamenca" used by Torquemada
and pehaps other writers of the colonial period?

3. Getting back to Tom's original question, does anyone have evidence to
suport Hassig's "macaw" translation of quecholli? (I haven't found any).

David Wright

-----Mensaje original-----
De: nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
En nombre de Frances Karttunen
Enviado el: sábado, 05 de diciembre de 2009 07:54 a.m.
Para: Nahuat-L ((messages))
Asunto: [Nahuat-l] hoary spoonbill

I think the identification "roseate spoonbill" is specifically of  
tla:uhquecho:olli 'red quechol'  (the first element being tla:huitl,  
referring to the color of red ochre or firelight).  Another  
identification of tla:uchquecho:lli has been flamingo.  The  
quecho:lli element refers to the neck of the bird, both the spoonbill  
and the flamingo swinging their heads back and forth on their long  
necks as they search water for food.

Anyway, if hoary is taken literally to refer to frost, a hoary  
spoonbill would have to be an albino.  :-)

Fran, an observer of many a roseate spoonbill feeding at the Decker  
Lake water treatment plant east of Austin


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