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From: bob@delphi.uchicago.edu (Robert S. Lewis, Jr.)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Jizz
Message-ID: <1990Sep4.005215.23543@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 4 Sep 90 00:52:15 GMT
References: <6881@milton.u.washington.edu> <585@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> <90244.113301JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET> <1990Sep1.231807.9059@nmt.edu>
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Reply-To: bob@delphi.UUCP (Robert S. Lewis, Jr.)
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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.