john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman) (12/24/87)
I had never heard this usage until about two issues ago in _Birding_, the American Birding Association's publication; I don't have the reference handy. I don't mind jargon when necessary, but this one seems to be either superfluous or a replacement for the old buzzword `gestalt', the way I've seen it used. Greg Pasquariello's original phrasing was: >> the LBB's seem to have an *extremely* long winged "jizz". Applying ``The Elements of Style'' by Strunk and White (Omit Needless Words), I would rewrite that as: >> the LBB's seem *extremely* long-winged. According to the _Birding_ reference, it is also used this way: Mutt: I think that was a Black Scoter, not a Surf. Jeff: How do you know? Mutt: By the `jizz'. People I've birded with typically use the word `gestalt' in situations like this, meaning that Mutt can't say whether it was plumage, flight style, habitat, etc. that made him think it was a Black Scoter, but his long experience with Black Scoters allows him to snap-call the species based on the totality, or gestalt, of his perceptions. -- John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, New Mexico USENET: ihnp4!lanl!unm-la!unmvax!nmtsun!john CSNET: john@nmt.csnet ``If you can't take it, get stronger.'' --Falline Danforth