Sprig/Pintail

MikeMaland

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137
Location
Delaware
Listened to another great Hunttalk podcast today. The conversation on the slang sprig vs pintails jarred my memory of talking with my grandfather about it. We live on the east coast and he always called them Sprigs and I always called them pintails.
After reading George Washington's journal i switched. The oldman was right after all... I thought it was interesting enough to share.

I believe he was hunting a creek just south of Mount Vernon, Doeg Run as he spelled it. Dogue creek on google maps.

George Washington
February 1768

24. Went a between breakfast & dinner & killd 2 Mallards & 5 bald faces. Found Doctr. Rumney here at Dinner who staid all Night. Mr. Magowan returnd.

25. Doctr. Rumney went away. I went to the Creek but not cross it. Killd 2 Ducks—viz. a sprig tail and Teal.



https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-02-02-0003-0004
 
You left out the best part:
24. Went a ducking between breakfast & dinner & killd 2 Mallards & 5 bald faces. Found Doctr. Rumney here at Dinner who staid all Night. Mr. Magowan returnd.

'a ducking' I love it!
Thanks for sharing!
 
I love the slag surrounding waterfowl hunting and the birds themselves. I haven't heard that podcast yet, but when I used to work for the NY DEC I used to go out of my way to use waterfowl slang not from my area to mess with my coworkers. We were all big waterfowl chasers back then (my buddies still are, but I'm shifting my focus to western big game now)

Some of my favorites (local names and otherwise) were Whistlers (Goldeneyes), Rocky Mountain Whistlers (Barrow's Goldeneyes), Butterballs (Buffleheads), Black Jacks and Ringers (Ringnecks), Baldpates and Cottontops (Wigeon), Sawbills and Fishducks (Mergansers)...the list goes on and on
 
Great Post. In California it was "sprig" and carbonated beverages "soda". When I moved to Idaho it was "pintail" and "pop".
 

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