Eleazar Albin gives three different names for the bird we know as the Eurasian wigeon: the more or less expected “Widgeon,” the lovely and onomatopoetic “Whewer,” and the puzzling Latin “Anas Fistularii.”
“Fistularis,” of course, is an ancient name for this species, going back beyond Gesner, and the source — or perhaps the reflex — of such vernacular names as “Pfeifente” and “siffleur,” all of which, like Albin’s “Whewer,” refer to the drake’s voice. Charleton says the bird
is so named for the rather sharp sound that it makes, like that of a shepherd’s pipe (fistula),
an explanation that makes perfect sense.
But Albin changes it, on his plate and in the caption to his short text. Instead of “the piping duck,” his wigeon is “the piper’s duck,” and I wonder whether there is not a meaning behind his emendation.
Ducks have been taken over live decoys, “call ducks,” since the first human noticed how tasty they were under all those feathers and down. To increase the attractiveness of their spread, fowlers — as they still do today — imitated the vocalizations of their quarry.
Might Albin be using “fistularius” here to refer to the whistling wildfowler, and might the anas be “his” in the sense that it was a frequent or a favored decoy species? We know from Albin himself that the bird was not of high culinary repute, so perhaps local hunters were more likely to use it as a decoy than a meal.
Plausible enough, isn’t it? Now all we need is an attestation of “fistularius” in that context, and some evidence that wigeons were used preferentially as lures.
Yeah, that’s all. Simple.
