john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) (09/02/90)
Josh Hayes (JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET) writes: +-- | ...the term "jizz". I had never run across this term before, | guess that shows that I haven't done any birding on other | continents.... Is this term an extraction from the German | word "gestalt", as in Gestalt Psychology? +-- I was involved in a rec.birds discussion on this very subject a year or so ago. Apparently the term comes from plane spotters in England in WWII, from the acronym GIS (General Impression of Shape). U.S. bird magazines (e.g., _Birding_) have been using it for a while, and it is spreading through this country. When I learned to bird in California in the mid-70's, the term ``gestalt'' was used pretty much the way ``jizz'' is used now. Since gestalt means a totality, I think the two may be used interchangeably, although some people argued the point. I told one birder that gestalt meant the totality of shape, posture, behavior, plumage, voice, geographic location, microhabitat, and all the other possible cues. He replied, ``well, that's just PART of the jizz.'' The way he explained it, there must have been a component of extra-sensory perception! Although I have to respect those with this kind of deep field experience, sometimes I think the use of these terms can be self-deceiving. ``Why do you think that was a Hammond's Flycatcher and not a Dusky?'' ``Well, it just had that Hammond's jizz.'' It seems to me that sometimes such usage comes from the strong urge to twitch a species (that is, check off a species on a list---another British usage becoming common in the US), and is used to support sightings in the absence of any truly hard evidence. -- John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu ``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.'' --Dave Farber
JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET (09/03/90)
In article <1990Sep1.231807.9059@nmt.edu>, john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) says: > >It seems to me that sometimes such usage comes from the >strong urge to twitch a species (that is, check off a >species on a list---another British usage becoming common in >the US), and is used to support sightings in the absence of >any truly hard evidence. >-- >John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu >``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.'' --Dave Farber That's a good point. It's very tempting sometimes; I can't count the number of Empidonaxes I've seen that were stubbornly silent. Sat ten feet away and looked smug at me. Guess what I am? Grrr. There are important characters, however, that are all too often underemphasized in field guide descriptions, primarily those of *behavior* and *specific habitat*. Range maps are nice, but one can often eliminate from consideration a species restricted to, say, >20' lodgepole pines, if you're in a deciduous river basin. Similarly, that ridiculous bobbing that spotted sandpipers do, kind of like characters in really old animations, you know? Just sort of jigging in space, so you know IT'S ANIMATED. A dead give- away in what can be a frustrating group, at least for me. I also find sonograms enormously helpful, 'cause I can read them pretty well, but my wife can't make head or tail of them.... Well. By the way, Acton Lake, in Hueston Woods State Park in SW Ohio, is teeming with Great Blue Herons. Lots of kingfishers, too, and the chickadee and titmouse populations seem to overwhelm any other passerines. The nesting pairs of Yellow-Throated Warblers that I had pinpointed are now gone; so I guess the migration has begun in earnest. So long, birds of summer.... Josh Hayes, Zoology Department, Miami University, Oxford OH 45056 voice: 513-529-1679 fax: 513-529-6900 jahayes@miamiu.bitnet, or jahayes@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu It goes in, it must come out. [Testicle's deviant to Fudd's first law of opposition.]
misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) (09/03/90)
> discussion about jizz deleted > It seems to me that sometimes such usage comes from the > strong urge to twitch a species (that is, check off a > species on a list---another British usage becoming common in > the US), and is used to support sightings in the absence of > any truly hard evidence. I believe your're confusing twitching with ticking. Twitching is when you go for a rare bird you know is there (whether you manage to see it or not). Ticking is when you tick a species on your list, whether it is twitched or not. Annika Forsten, Finland
bob@delphi.uchicago.edu (Robert S. Lewis, Jr.) (09/04/90)
In article <1990Sep1.231807.9059@nmt.edu> john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) writes: >Josh Hayes (JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET) writes: >Although I have to respect those with this kind of deep >field experience, sometimes I think the use of these terms [jizz or gestalt] >can be self-deceiving. >It seems to me that sometimes such usage comes from the >strong urge to twitch a species (that is, check off a >species on a list---another British usage becoming common in >the US), and is used to support sightings in the absence of >any truly hard evidence. Then again, we all identify our friends and relatives by their jizz--and who'd ever think of asking us for "truly hard evidence" when we claim we saw our friend Johnnie at the local watering hole--unless of course Johnnie was holding up the bartender.... Jizz is extremely reliable once you're familiar with a species (and the species similar to it), but to convince others you may need to give some harder evidence along with the "subjective" interpretation of the bird's appearance. Saying the gull you saw was a Herring Gull and not a Ring-Billed Gull because it looked meaner is okay, but it gets better when you can say it looked meaner because its forehead was flatter, its eye relatively less round and prominent, and it's bill bigger. Of course, even these more specific statements are subjective and interpretive--and it's remarkably easy to convince yourself that a bird has the specific ("objective") characteristics of the bird you are expecting to see or you really want to see. Whenever you're looking for a Louisiana Waterthrush, those Northern Waterthrushes all start getting whiter eyebrows that broaden behind the eye. Even "truly hard evidence" can be suspect when the urge to "twitch" gets too strong.
willner@cfa.HARVARD.EDU (Steve Willner, OIR) (09/06/90)
> ...the term "jizz". I had never run across this term before,
From article <1990Sep1.231807.9059@nmt.edu>, by john@nmt.edu (John Shipman):
:> Apparently the term comes from
:> plane spotters in England in WWII, from the acronym GIS
:> (General Impression of Shape).
For what it's worth, I read somewhere that the term is a contraction of
"just is." (As in "Why is that bird a robin?" "It just is!") This may
be folk etymology, of course, since I don't remember where I read it.
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