bargander

English

Etymology

Corruption of burrow +‎ gander.

Noun

bargander (plural barganders)

1. (Norfolk, dialect) Synonym of shelduck
   • 1801, The New Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs Guide:

     Thanet has abundance of wild-fowl in a severe winter; and a bird, called the bargander, in Latin, chemaloper, often frequents the marshes and waters in it.

   • 1829 November, “Wild Fowl Shooting”, in Sporting Magazine, volume 23, page 162:

     Here he sees the whirlings of the ducks, hears the booming of the bitterns, the scream of the heron, the whistle of the plover; sees the figure of the wild geese, the deceit of the lapwing, the variegated beauty of the bargander, the single circling of the curlew, the rapid flight of the teal, the more noisy rush of the dunbird, and listens to the pleasing call of the widgeon: -- these are the varieties which set the embers of his soul on fire.

   • 1865, Arthur Kavanagh, The Cruise of the R.Y.S. Eva, page 146:

     Well, we remained at Petala from the 16th to the 24th -- eight shooting days, and killed between us sixty-seven and a-half brace of woodcock, twenty- seven brace of teal, thirty-three brace of widgeon, fifteen brace of ducks, seven and a-half brace of geese, two brace of sea-pheasants, one and a-half brace of barganders and one hare; so far as we were concerned, (that is, my friend and I) we would have been well satisfied to remain for another eight days; but below stairs the rumblings of a coming storm, the premonitory symptoms of a mutiny, at length made themselves so distince, that it was absurd to attempt to feign ignorand any longer: there was nothing for it but to never ourselves like brave men for the coming struggle.

   • 1937, University of Pennsylvania. Botanical Laboratory, Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory and the Morris Arboretum, page 12:

     And such egs not only Doves do bring, but house hens also, Partridges, Peahens, Geese, and Brants, or the female Barganders.