That bird quiz

[gurthaew]

1 Someone who bolts their food
2 Around the neck in Elizabethan times
3 A little cut goes east
4 The symbol of the RSPB
5 Seen on the chess board
6 Arthur Ransome's famous dinghy
7 Ruddy beginning
8 A metal pin to hold meat?
9 A Bell Boeing military aircraft
10 Green arms (anag.)
11 Pear cider induces a smile, perhaps?
12 Could be used to tell the time
13 17th century author spoke of Lilliput
14 Darwin's ship loses its bow
15 An illegal party heads north
16 This one doesn't need string to fly
17 A pastime
18 Look into the other one
19 It sang in Berkeley Square
20 A wizard
21 Made in part at Madame Tussauds
22 Tipple found on tap
23 A Royal Naval rating
24 A fashionable shade of blue
25 Thievin'?
26 Extremely rare sighting on the golf course
27 The Mother of all pantomimes
28 An embarrassed outside forward
29 Cot has ten (anag.)
30 Power provider dons a hair piece
31 You fill your car with this?
32 Noah and Nelly's boat
33 Batman's adversary
34 Edif Piaf drops a consonant
35 Chinese language doesn't score
36 To grumble
37 Sounds like a letter of the alphabet
38 Big Ears' best friend
39 Ellen MacArthur's Vendee Globe boat
40 A bird called 3.142 until the late 16th century
41 No sound for this graceful bird
42 Symbol of peace
43 An idiot goes east
44 The hind part or butt?
45 Credited with writing the Law of the Capillaries
46 Triangular flags and festive decorations
47 Johnny's pirate character
48 Replete mother
49 Cetti went to a Garden in Dartford
50 William's cutlery

1 Gannet
2 Ruff
3 Snipe
4 Avocet
5 Rook
6 Swallow
7 Redstart
8 Skua
9 Osprey
10 Merganser
11 Peregrine
12 Cuckoo
13 Swift
14 Eagle
15 Raven
16 Kite
17 Hobby
18 Heron
19 Nightingale
20 Merlin
21 Waxwing
22 (Bittern?) The jury's still out on this one.
23 Wren (but could be diver)
24 Peacock
25 Robin (thievin' = theiving = robbing = robin')
26 Albatross
27 Goose
28 Redwing
29 Stonechat
30 Wigeon
31 Petrel
32 Skylark
33 Penguin
34 Egret
35 Mandarin Duck
36 Grouse
37 Jay
38 Noddy
39 Kingfisher
40 Magpie (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/magpie see no. 1)
41 Mute Swan
42 Dove
43 Twite
44 Rhea
45 Starling
46 Bunting
47 Sparrow
48 Fulmar
49 Warbler
50 Spoonbill

Comments

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

I thought 23 was Jackdaw (Jack Tar)

[gurthaew.livejournal.com]

There's been various suggestions, including frigate (strictly frigate bird). Aren't shore establishments referred to as ratings at times? I have heard of shore based facilities being called stone frigates before.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of a shore place being a rating, a stone frigate though certainly. I forgot to add that we'd included Wren as a slim possibility too.

[gurthaew.livejournal.com]

The frigate thing came from elegaer who wrote "oh oh is 23 frigate?? I think ratings apply to ships as well as personnel." I'm not that up to speed with naval terms so pencilled it in. I got diver of the RN website as it appears to be classed as a rating.

Are WRNs a rting or is it a general term used by the blokes to describe the whole section of female personnel?

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

All RN sailors, your basic matelot, were known as 'junior rates' (as in those not officers, or senior NCOs) or 'ratings' in my day (when talking collectively, occasionally 'the lower deck' was also used).

Diver is a branch of service, like the WEM (Weapons Engineering Mechanic) aka 'Greenie', or MEM (Marine Engineering Mechanic) aka 'Stoker'. The WRNS was merged into the RN so all female sailors are also now 'ratings' as far as I know, certainly they seem to now wear the same uniform, berets, caps, and branch badges (previously they had their own distinctive uniform and their 'smart rig' badges were blue embroidery to the matelots' red or gold), before that they were referred to as Wren [branch of service].

As for "a general term used by the blokes to describe the whole section of female personnel" I ain't saying anything ... :p

[elegaer.livejournal.com]

"The rating system of the Royal Navy and its predecessors was used by the British Royal Navy between the beginning of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century to categorise sailing warships, initially classing them according to their assigned complement of men, and later according to the number of their carriage-mounted guns."

etc. only knowedge gleaned from internet :)

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Yes the old age of sail system of rating ships by number of guns & decks so that naval warfare was fought on an honourable system between equals, thus HMS Victory (104) 'first rate'* 'ship of the line*'

But the way the question is worded suggests a person (as per my above) than a ship, well to me anyway.

*Ships of the line of battle = First-rate (100+ guns 3 gun decks); Second-rate (90+ guns 3 gun decks); Third-rate (60+ guns 2 gun decks); Fourth-rate (45+ guns 2 gun decks: most often 50s eg the horrible old HMS Leopard of Aubrey fame); note actually numbers varied. Frigates, which were not 'of the line' unless your name was Cochrane formed the Fifth-rate & Sixth-rate (Jack Aubrey's fictional HMS Surprise was a 6th Rate).

[elegaer.livejournal.com]

I was just vastly pleased with my answer is frigate so I'm trying vainly to really justify it :P