# Old timers names for animals



## Jody Hawk

I remember back when I was growing up with my Uncle Cleve there wasn't any copperheads, we had high land moccasins. No bobwhite quails, we had pottidges. No redtailed hawks or coopers hawks either, we had chicken hawks and rabbit hawks. The American Kestrel was a sparrow hawk. No cane cutter rabbits, the swamp rabbits were buck rabbits. Snapping turtles were loggerheads. Box turtles were high land terrapins. I could sit here and think of some more. Any of y'all remember the names the old timers had for animals that you don't here of much these days. Another one my Uncle talked about was a snake called a spreading adder. I think that is a hog nosed snake.


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## fredw

Jody, we called the hog nose a puff adder.

Some others....

Grey squirrels were cat squirrels.

The timber rattler was a canebrake.

Skunks were civet cats.

Quail were also called birds....going bird hunting was widely understood to mean quail.


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## Branchminnow

Pilot was any poisonous snake.


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## Jody Hawk

fredw said:
			
		

> Quail were also called birds....going bird hunting was widely understood to mean quail.



Yeah Fred, I remember that one very well. We never went quail hunting, it was always bird hunting.


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## billyjames

Raccoons were "coons"...
And, diverting a bit from the animals, I remember the old-timers calling the first food plots "grass patches", Camouflage clothing "Fatigues", and compound bows "Them new-fangled thangs..."


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## Jody Hawk

billyjames said:
			
		

> Raccoons were "coons"...



Yeah Billy, raccoons were always just coons.


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## Branchminnow

pole cat's were skunks, and whistle pigs were groundhogs. Actually with me they still are I just happened to realize where I first heard those terms, from my grandpa.


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## gordylew

When I first moved down here as a kid I would always hear people say there were 2 kind of snakes. one near water was a water moccasin and one on dry ground was a highland moccasin.  being a smart#^^ kid I would try to correct them and tell them that their highland moccasin was actually a rough green snake but of couldn,t tell them anything. close minded ignoramus'


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## Branchminnow

Ive never heard of a snake named "ignoramus"


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## d_white

We drop the tortoise part and just call them "gophers".


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## OconeeJim

*actually....*

...and since I are one, the correct term is "close minded ignorami" (plural), which is a common condition that comes with aging.

Back to the thread... minners, bigmouth trout (pure So. GA, folks!), potteridges, widder woman (oh, we're talking about wildlife and such!), maters, taters, and on-and on...


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## gordylew

Branchminnow said:
			
		

> Ive never heard of a snake named "ignoramus"


Its a cross breed between a highland moccassin and a water moccasin.  I believe its  midlanderi ignorami moccasin.  they can morph themselves into a king snake.


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## Nicodemus

We speak a different language in South Ga. 

Longstraw yellow pine - longleaf pine
Tupler-tupelo
Elum-elm
potterges-quail
cotterges-rifle bullets
hog bear-black bear
rice birds-cedar waxwings
french mockingbird-loggerhead shrike
alligator snappin` turtle-loggerhead
cooter-softshell turtle
shine eye-small channel catfish
rockfish-striped bass
white perch-crappie
highland moccasin-copperhead
spreadin` adder-hog nosed snake
copper belly moccasin-mud snake
woodcock-pileated woodpecker
summer duck-wood duck
roach-silver shiner
water turkey-anhinga
fish hawk-osprey
blue darter-missisippi kite
rabbit hawk-marsh hawk
chicken hawk-red tailed hawk
killy hawk-american kestrel (sparrow hawk)
rain crow-yellow billed cuckoo
blue pete-coot
tuffys-pond minnows
gopher-gopher tortoise (sp)
razorback terrapin-map turtle
canecutters-swamp rabbits
yellow rattler-canebrake rattler
bear grass-yucca plant
cape jasmine-gardenia


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## Vernon Holt

Mourning Dove was called Turtle Dove.
Pileated Woodpecker was Wood Hen.
Mud Fish was Grindle.
Most wading birds were called pinkiepinkiepinkiepinkiee Pokes.
Marsh Hawk was called Rabbit Hawk.
Coopers Hawk was called Blue Darter.
Hickory trees were Hickernut trees.
Clapper Rails were mud hens.
Helgramites were called Go-devils.
Creek Chubs were Horney Heads.
Spring water was sprang water.
Cress was Creases
Commercial Fertilizer was guano.
Ammonium Nitrate and Nitrate of Soda was Sody.
An oxen was called a steer.
Apple Brandy was Apple Jack.
Homemade beer was Homebrew.
A person of northern origin was called a damyankee.
Hammers of old double guns were Rabbitears.
Cottontail Rabbits were called Sagers.
Persimmon trees were called Simmon Trees.


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## Jody Hawk

One more, my Daddy and Uncle had a name for woodcock, mud pottidges !!!!


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## Nicodemus

A few more.

pond scoggin-any heron
blackfish-bowfin
trout-bass
horse chestnut-painted buckeye
painter-panther
haint-haunt 
lightnin` bug-firefly
willow bug-mayfly
haws-mayhaws
jack-chain pickerel


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## No. GA. Mt. Man

Now this is one I never heard of:trout-bass????


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## LJay

No. GA. Mt. Man said:
			
		

> Now this is one I never heard of:trout-bass????


Some called them Green Trout.


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## Researcher31726

Very good, gang!


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## Branchminnow

Researcher31726 said:
			
		

> Very good, gang!


You re gonna write about this aint cha?


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## 11P&YBOWHUNTER

Where i am from,...when we saw a southerner,(My cousins new husband)we called him a redneck!!  He had one too...red as red can get.

Then the Army sent me here and so now i hear everyone call me yankee, democrat etc etc.  I feel as out of place as my cousins husband did!!


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## Hogtown

Anhinga = Water turkey
Bass = Green Trout
Bowfin = Mudfish
Bowfin after taking your last shinner = ##!@%#% Mudfish
Chain Pickeral = Jackfish
Hog = Piney Woods Rooter
Warmouth Perch = Warmouth Bass
American Kestrel = Sparrow Hawk
Wood Stork = Ironhead
Crappie = Specs
?Bullhead? = Yellow bellied butter cat
Redbreast = Redbelly (breast was vulgar)
Bluegill = Bream
Red Ear Sunfish = Shellcracker
Florida version of Bigfoot = Skunk Ape
Imaginary Monster to scare kids = Grampus


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## Hogtown

Fogot one:

Very heavy rain = Frog Strangler, as in "That sure was a Frog Strangler yesterday, wasn't it ?"


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## Wang Dang

When I was young we all called a Mockingbird a Cat Bird.

We also called the Red Tailed Hawk a Chicken Hawk.


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## Nicodemus

Oh yea, the dreaded "wampus cat". Never figured out just exactly what this worrisome critter was, but we were warned it would "git us" if we didn`t behave!  I sure would like to know what this thing was, do they still exist, and see one!


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## Vernon Holt

*Old Timers Names*



			
				Wang Dang said:
			
		

> "*When I was young we all called a Mockingbird a Cat Bird". *


 
Wang: Then what did you call a Catbird??  hope you did not call him a Mockingbird.


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## Jody Hawk

I think you got your birds mixed up. A mockingbird and a catbird are two different species of birds.


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## slightly grayling

They had something called a Wampus at the Old Sautee Store near Helen when I was a kid....it was a box with some kind of animal fur rigged up to a mouse trap spring that would fly in your face when you monkeyed with the box it was in....that $#@$!! thing made me jump out of my skin!



			
				nicodemus said:
			
		

> Oh yea, the dreaded "wampus cat". Never figured out just exactly what this worrisome critter was, but we were warned it would "git us" if we didn`t behave!  I sure would like to know what this thing was, do they still exist, and see one!


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## Hogtown

Good job Nicodemus - I had completely forgotten about the dreaded Wampus Cat - it's been 40+ yrs since I've heard the term. They were part of the lore in Central Florida, just south of the Green Swamp. I had one uncle who spoke of the wampus cat. If I remember right I think a wampus cat was supposed to be like a panther on steriods and with a bad attitude. A Grampus on the other hand was a reptile like creature.


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## Killdee

My uncle Mutt called water turtles, turkles and box turtles terripins,and all snakes was deadly pizzionous.Ive heard blue herons called shikepokes,And the night bogger that came after you when you was bad was the dreaded "SOPE SALLY".


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## jcarter

chipmonk was a ground squirrel. salamander was a spring lizard. cousin steve was that lazy (edited for typing around the censor)


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## Wang Dang

We called a Mockingbird a Catbird because they would swoop down and attack cats. 

I did not know there was an actual Catbird out there.


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## Ol' Red

I heard somebody refer to a fish they caught as a stump knocker.  Don't know what that is though.

-Ol' Red


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## fredw

Ol' Red said:
			
		

> I heard somebody refer to a fish they caught as a stump knocker.  Don't know what that is though.
> 
> -Ol' Red



That's what we called a shellcracker.


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## leadoff

Yellowhammer = Common Flicker (woodpecker)

BTW... A yellowhammer is also a nasty curveball....a double-overhanded yellowhammer is a REAL nasty curbeball.


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## Trizey

jcarter said:
			
		

> chipmonk was a ground squirrel. salamander was a spring lizard. cousin steve was that lazy ol ********.


  


When something was big it was called a hawg leg.


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## bigbird1

I did'nt hear mention of the "woolie boogers" you know the ones that lives down by the cypress swamps.


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## Hogtown

There is a difference between a Shellcracker and a Stumpknocker.  A Shellcracker is a Red Eared Sunfish (I believe - I'll have to check my fish book).  The Stumpknocker was a completely different animal. It is small (hand sized is huge), found mainly in slow rivers, is a stout, thick-backed sunfish, it is generally a dark color (tanic acid), but has a gold spec on every scale.  They are commonly found around Cypress stumps and fallen logs and strike worms/crickets/flies quite agressively. They are also quite tasty.


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## fredw

*Hogtown*



			
				Hogtown said:
			
		

> There is a difference between a Shellcracker and a Stumpknocker.  A Shellcracker is a Red Eared Sunfish (I believe - I'll have to check my fish book).  The Stumpknocker was a completely different animal. It is small (hand sized is huge), found mainly in slow rivers, is a stout, thick-backed sunfish, it is generally a dark color (tanic acid), but has a gold spec on every scale.  They are commonly found around Cypress stumps and fallen logs and strike worms/crickets/flies quite agressively. They are also quite tasty.



Good one....here's some info on the stumpknocker.

SPOTTED SUNFISH 

(Lepomis punctatus) 

Common Names - stumpknocker and bream.


Description - Spotted sunfish tend to be olive-green to brown in color, with black or reddish spots on the base of each scale to form rows of dots on its sides. On some fish there is a red bar in front of many of the black spots, particularly below the lateral line. These bars give the fish a reddish hue. Body shape is thick and ovate, with the length about twice the depth. Some fish have blue on the lower portion of the eye.


Subspecies - Two were previously recognized, but now represent distinct species.  The other closely related species is L. miniatus, which is found in Mississippi and in Gulf coast drainages. Intergrades may be found in northwest Florida.


Range - It is found throughout the Florida peninsula and west to the Perdido River.


Habitat - The preferred habitat is slow-moving, heavily vegetated streams and rivers with limestone, sand, or gravel substrates. They are virtually ubiquitous inhabiting large rivers to very small creeks.


Spawning Habits - A nest-building sunfish that tends to be more solitary than some of the other members of the sunfish family. Males are very aggressive and antagonistic toward other fish in its nesting area. The beds are about one foot in diameter and are fanned out by the male, who also stands guard over the eggs and larvae. Concentrations of beds are found where suitable habitat is limited. Spawning takes place from May through November.


Feeding Habits - This species is very aggressive and will take almost anything they can attack and catch. They generally feed on the bottom, but sometimes it will rise to the surface to take food. Spotted sunfish will feed on invertebrates, insects and small fishes when they are easy to catch. The bulk of their diet consist of a variety of plants and animals that are usually associated with aquatic vegetation, brush, or rubble.


Age and Growth - Very little information is available on age and growth. A four year old fish average about six inches long.


Sporting Qualities - Because of its small size the spotted sunfish has limited value to the angler, but it is an active and fiesty panfish. The same methods of fishing discussed for the redbreast sunfish apply for the spotted sunfish. As a sport fish, specific bag and size limit regulations apply, and you can register a qualifying catch as part of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's "Big Catch" program.


Eating Quality - The flesh is excellent. Preparation is the same as the redbreast sunfish.


World Record - None exists due to its small size.


State Record - 13.25 ounces, caught in the Suwannee River, in 1984. (Please check link for updates)


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## leadoff

Is a stumpknocker kind of like a fartknocker?


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## Woody52

Any fish too small to fry, including:  Herring, shad, *****-heads, spot-tails, etc. were referred to as "minners"


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## Hogtown

Woody's post jogged my memory. The old-timers in central Florida called any really small fish a "fry-hard".  Meaning you gutted them, rolled them in meal and fried the heck out of them.  You ate the head, scales, bones - everything but the guts.


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## SBG

Hogtown said:
			
		

> Good job Nicodemus - I had completely forgotten about the dreaded Wampus Cat - it's been 40+ yrs since I've heard the term. They were part of the lore in Central Florida, just south of the Green Swamp. I had one uncle who spoke of the wampus cat. If I remember right I think a wampus cat was supposed to be like a panther on steriods and with a bad attitude. A Grampus on the other hand was a reptile like creature.



I was scared to death of them when I was kid coon hunting with my daddy. He called them wampascoolians.

 A few more...kinda along the same path:

Almost all fishing lures were plugs.

A Red Drum or Redfish was a Red Bass.

All soft drinks were cokes.

If you had a limp, it was a "step" in your leg.

Gallonipper was big skeeter.

We called them crawdads, some call them crayfish or crawfish.

Mango snapper is a mangrove snapper


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## Hogtown

Mango - absolutely right. They still call them Mangos. Florida Lobster were & still are called "Bugs".


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## justus3131

I remember the older boys in the hood telling us younger ones, to watch out for the cotton-mouth crocigators.  I always kept an eye out but never saw one.  They usually came out when you were snipe huntn', with a bag and stick.


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## jody7818

Branchminnow said:
			
		

> pole cat's were skunks, and whistle pigs were groundhogs. Actually with me they still are I just happened to realize where I first heard those terms, from my grandpa.



My grandma and dad called skunks "pole cat's."  My neighbor calls them "poler cats."  We also called the police "pole cats" as well.  I hope there's not any cops here...


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## DaddyPaul

This thread brings back a lot of memories.  My best pals grandpa used to call the black bass we caught in his farm ponds "green trout".  I hadn't heard or seen that in a long time.  My Dad used to talk of a creature known only as the "okra man".  When I was a small boy I was very spooked about running up on this feller in the woods!


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## W4DSB

My grandparents talked about Soap Sally a loooong time ago!


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## BowArrow

I grew up catching "trout" in the Ogeechee River. You never heard the word "bass". Some oldtimers still call them trout. I would always correct these fishermen but I was wasting my time. 

Stumpnocker=cuffe=black perch

turtle=cooter


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## nwgahunter

Coppertoothed-rattle-moccasin = Any poisonous snake


Tree Rat = Squirrel
Flying Carp = Sea Gull
Snipe = gullable kid


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## willhunt

I've got one y'all ain't mentioned yet...My grandpa called a yellow billed cuckoo a "rain crow" and I still do today.


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## MCBUCK

May be Vernon Holt or NGMM can tell us all what the real name for this is
Horse.

 You see em in the trout streams, and I have always just known em as "horse", I think they are a breed of sucker.


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## Nicodemus

Sounds like you`re  talkin` about a red horse sucker.


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## Handgunner

All these names bring back memories.

Anyone know what a "Miloremore" is?


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## Vernon Holt

Now Delton, I think you are down to just making up names.


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## Handgunner

Vernon Holt said:
			
		

> Now Delton, I think you are down to just making up names.


No really... My uncle told me of a bird around here that's much like an ostrich.  It lives with it's head mostly in the ground.  And when it let's one rip, it can be heard from a "mile-or-more" 

My uncle wouldn't lie to me would he?


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## WOODIE13

Jody Hawk said:
			
		

> Another one my Uncle talked about was a snake called a spreading adder. I think that is a hog nosed snake.



Back home in WV, we called them blowing vipers because of all of the hissing they would do to scare you off.


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## rip18

Here are a few more that can get confusing:

Hundred-legger - centipede
Seed pea - centipede
Centipede - scorpion
Scorpion - any lizard
Fire scorpion - broad headed skink (deadly)
Changeable scorpion - anole/chamaelon (VERY DEADLY)
Fire lizard - salamander or skink
Salamander or sandy mounder - pocket gopher
Gopher - gopher tortoise


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## Jody Hawk

This may have been mentioned but the yellow perch was a chain gang fish.


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## RJY66

My Dad and Granddaddy always called a largemouth bass a trout...

For saltwater fish here on the coast....

Stripers were rockfish.
Red Drum were spottail bass.
Stingrays were sting-a-rees.
Ladyfish were Skipjacks.  

I also heard one of my uncles refer to a perch as an "Eisenhower" because he thought that Eisenhower or the government stocked them either in the Savannah River or lakes like Clark Hill??


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## LJay

MCBUCK said:
			
		

> May be Vernon Holt or NGMM can tell us all what the real name for this is
> Horse.
> 
> You see em in the trout streams, and I have always just known em as "horse", I think they are a breed of sucker.


They are ***** Head Chubs.


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## Mojo^

I used to know quite a few folks that called bream copperheads.


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## rex upshaw

fredw, timber rattlers and canebrake's are actually 2 different snakes, but their dna is almost the exact same....but we use to call them canebrake's as well.


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## rip18

Got a new one today (plant actually) which made me remember an older one-

Bamboo or catclaw - greenbrier, Smilax

and here's the new one -

Devil's shoestring - lanceleafed greenbrier, Smilax smallii (the thornless greenbrier)


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## Vernon Holt

***** Heads are Creek Chubs.  As already clearly stated, the Red Horse is a Sucker.


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## jayrun

How bout,

Doodlebugs- ant lion
chiggers-redbugs-noseeums
wooly buggers- not sure of real name but copper and black/brown wooly catapillars

rocky mountain oysters- bull testicles

Myths used to scare the bejesus out of me and my brothers:

Soap Sally-Soap woman- the old woman that took naughty children and turned them into soap.

raw headed bloody bone- not sure what he was but I was scared of him

The goat man- not scarey but usually the junk dealer i think

till i went into the military i had no idea that there was any other bass other than largemouth and we just called them dinner.

Cockroaches (specially near savanah) were palmetto bugs

Mud Dobbers- dunno looked like black wasps that made mud tubes for nests and fed spiders to their young.

Leeches- Blood bugs

Junebugs- some kind of big beetle

praying mantis- stick bug

carpenter beetles - white faced bumble bees

 thats all i can think of that were not already mentioned.

Dunno if I am seasoned but I grew up  with my grandparents who hailed from Cordele and perry, then moved to tifton, then  my grandfather was the Camp administrator for the FFA/FHA camp in covington, and finally to  Cherokee county.

Had a cabin on lake Blackshear that we went to every summer.

I am only 33 years old but most of these names were familiar to me.

Question tho ...is a turkey vulture and a buzzard the same thing?

Jayrun


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## stev

i had a dog named willow .he was a beagle with flppy ears.i was a younin then.The best bunny dog we had .


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## Son

*A popular thread*

Ya'll have covered most of 'em.
But coming from South Fl we had our own names for some.
Mudfish = Bowfin.
Hoot owl, Monkeyface, swamp owl = Barred owl.
Indian Pullet = Green Heron.
Cypress chicken = Curlew.
Water Turkey = Anhinga.
Whoopers = Sandhill Cranes.
Bull Bream = Bluegill bream in Homosassa Fl. Same as Copperhead bream.
Swamp Cabbage = Sabal Palm.
Crab Shalowe = Some of the best eating in the South.
Cuban Sandwich = Bet ain't many that's heard of those.


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## roscoe p.coletrane

Crappie were papermouths

Our iron hedge bush was the "switch bush" we'd have to get our own switch for momma off the bush. 

Dont know the acutal species of fish it was but it was a toothy critter we called a "Dog fish" cause of the teeth 

Spotted bass were "rock bass" we used to catch in the back water feeder creeks. 

Two kinda of dogs-huntin dogs and lazy good for nuthing 

My father knew only hunting as "Bird, Rabbit or squirrel" cause when he grew up they rarely saw any deer and if they did the whole town knew about it.


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## Hawkeye

How About Opossum called posum or moonrat 

Women= Two legged does


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## newmoon

That Goat man thing was real, back in the 60s there was and old man that had a small wagon that he pulled with a team of goats and traveled all over the country. I will never forget seeing him, he picked up junk and hauled it around and traded and sold it for food. I was a little guy but will never forget how ripe that old man smelled. I think he was worse than than the big billy that was the lead goat of the team. LOL                  alan


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## David Payne

Interesting thing about stumpknockers (correctly ID'd as Spotted Sunfish-good job y'all) is that they have blue eyes, which is pretty cool. I have one in my fish tank with a big ole Warmouth. 

There is also a rare strain of pocket gopher in middle GA that get called Salamanders - which seems to be an adaptation of sandy-mounders; which is surely because they make little sandy mounds around their burrows, kinda like little prarie dogs.

Another observation - Gopher tortoises are actually ID'd as Sand Hill Tortoises in the biology books i think.  I also tried in vain to correct my Tifton rooted grandfather that Trout were actually largemouth bass, and he would just grin and chuckle and look for opportunities to further call them trout and needle me a little. He was a very fun grandfather and taught me to fish.  Grandmother had a ceramic doodad of a rainbow trout on a knicknack shelf that was actually pretty detailed, and i would go get it and say NO, THIS is a trout!  It was pretty funny.  Since redbreast were so shy on the bed, he would wade out in the shallows, set a cane pole into the mud bottom, toss out the worm or cricket, and go away for a little while, then come back and get the fish.


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## au7126

Crappie called white perch


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## saltysenior

how can you all forget....redbug


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## germag

rex upshaw said:


> fredw, timber rattlers and canebrake's are actually 2 different snakes, but their dna is almost the exact same....but we use to call them canebrake's as well.



At one time they were classified as a single species with two subspecies, the timber rattlesnake was the type (_Crotalus horridus horridus_) and the canebrake rattlesnake was a subspecies (_C. h. atricaudatus_. This is no longer recognized and they are considered as a single species (_C. horridus_) with no subspecies. There are some morphological differences (with wide overlap) in scale counts, but there is not enough difference in DNA or morphologically to support subspecific status. They are essentially just different color phases of the same snake.


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## fishfryer

Hope this thread is still open. I really enjoyed reading the replies and comments.Nicodemus,Vernon Holt,andHogtown were very good. Jody Hawk you started a fine thread, I'd like to add two cents,if it's still open.If not expect a revisit,soon.


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## biker13

Pileated was a Lord God,painters,catamounts were whatever the dogs got after at night and went "out of hearing" Some good times back then


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## biker13

And there was also the 3 toed wangdoodle,which nobody ever saw


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## NCHillbilly

Around here:

cougar/panther-painter
pileated woodpecker-wood hen
flicker woodpecker-yallerhammer
ruffed grouse-pheasant
quail-partridge
great blue heron-crane
striped skunk-polecat
spotted skunk-civet cat
groundhog-whistlepig
native brook trout-speckles
box turtle-terrapin
salamander-spring lizard
fence lizard-scorpion
snapping turtle-mud turtle
cuckoo-rain crow
great horned owl-hoot owl
screech owl-scrunch owl
redtail hawk-chicken hawk
kestrel-sparrow hawk
hognose snake-spreading adder
rat snake-blacksnake
creek chub-horn yhead
downy woodpecker-sapsucker
turkey vulture-buzzard
flathead catfish-mud cat
stocked trout-doughbellies
any sunfish-brim
cardinal-redbird
grackle-blackbird
blue jay-jaybird
rhododendron-laurel
mountain laurel-ivy
local bigfoot critter-Boojum
ghost-haint
any scary unknown supernatural or monster type critter-booger
Satan-the Boogerman


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## br6ppc

Jody Hawk said:


> This may have been mentioned but the yellow perch was a chain gang fish.



My Daddy and Granddaddy also called them Raccoon perch.

Man, all of these posts bring back memories. Ya'll have done a great job putting this thread together.


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## fishfryer

*day late and 98 cents short*

What are water rattlers and rattlesnake pilots? My daddy and his family, South Ga. folks called sunfish, perch. I added that sunfish part so most would understand. I knew a man from Mobile Ala., that called bass,green trout. Relatives in Louisiana call hognose snakes,spread adders.Vernon Holt correctly stated that oldtimers called fertilizer guano,and they pronounced it gue anner. Redeyes were small creekfish, perhaps Dollar sunfish.I was trying to describe a Flier to a fishing buddy once,he said all those small bream I was catching were fliers,when I pressed the trigger on that automatic flyreel. My only advise to young fishermen who hear someone call a bass a trout. If you are fortunate enough to be invited to an old farmer's pond and he calls them trout,that's what they are.You start correcting him and you may not be able to fish there again,but you can console yourself that you set him straight. Most fish and many animals have several names,perhaps the first man who named them, was the only one who calls them right,but he spoke some long forgotten indian dialect. Old timers had a harder life than we'll ever know about,I'm pleased to call a bass a trout. Good arguments are getting scase anyhow.


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## ancienttrails

Lot,s of stumpknockers in Hatchet creek and Poor joe's are Blue herons.Any fork footed critters got to be a buck.


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## germag

Yep, where I grew up in Louisiana, a bass is a "green trout".  A bream or sunfish of any description was a "perch". A bowfin is a "choupique". A freshwater drum is a "gaspergou". A crappie is a "sacalait". A catfish is "barbue". A marsh hen (coot) is a "poule d'eau" or "pool-doo".


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## mikelogg

Cicada=July fly


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## NCHillbilly

mikelogg said:


> Cicada=July fly



Here, the annual ones are called jar flies, the 17-year ones are locusts.


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## daisy102998

how about a burlap bag-guanner sack, feed sack.


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## germag

daisy102998 said:


> how about a burlap bag-guanner sack, feed sack.



Or croaker sack. In some areas, "crocus sack" or "gunny sack".


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## redneck_billcollector

My grandfather used to tell Yankees down here fishing If they wanted crappie go to the outhouse, they were speckled perch and to this day that is what I call them. Quail were partridge and only recently have I started using the term quail, bass were green trout, and bowfin were cypress trout.

Most of the names I have heard have already been posted, cept we called sliders (green pond turtles) cooters (I still do most of the time) and we called softshelled turtles simply "best eatin' turtles". My grandfather called gar "lobster fish" when he was serving them to guest....nobody would eat them if he called them gar but they all loved the mysterious "lobster fish".


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## germag

redneck_billcollector said:


> ..... and bowfin were cypress trout.
> 
> Most of the names I have heard have already been posted, cept we called sliders (green pond turtles) cooters (I still do most of the time)



I've heard bowfin called cypress trout before too....


There is a separate species of freshwater turtle with the common name "cooter"....the sliders are _Trachemys scripta ssp._ The cooters are members of the genus _Psuedemys_. They are commonly confused with the sliders because they are similar in appearance...but they are two different species.


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## germag

Stinkpot turtles are called "stinking jims"

Mud snakes are called "hoop snakes" (and supposedly have a deadly sting in their tail)


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## oldways

The only one I ain't seen is a Jack fish- Chain pickeral, Grass mullet which is small mullet and smoker which is a big mullet, a skiff is a boat ,and Red-belly which is a bream. Shoats is a half grown hog a barr is a cut hog a molly is female mule and a john is a male mule Just a couple I didn't see..


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## Dog Hunter

How about a gator flea


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## Luckybuck

South Louisiana, bass were called green trout.


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## Dog Hunter

Government cats?


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## Luckybuck

Mud fish also known as Cypress trout, shoe pick, grinnel.


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## Luckybuck

Wood ducks called squealers.  Gonna go shoot me some squealers today per my grandpa.


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## mcduckman

dy-dapper: word used to by my dad to describe some type of diving duck
spring lizards-salamanders
baltimore minnow-some type of baitfish that looks like a goldfish
garden snake-garter snake
pole cat-skunk
mudcat-brown bullhead
frog in the yard- american toad
canebreaker-swamp rabbit
horn head-creek chub
wast or warsp-wasp


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## NCHillbilly

I forgot to mention that the common old brown paper wasps here are called "waspers." And burlap sacks are "tow sacks"


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## bighonkinjeep

Don't forget about Aints-ants and there were Tawba worms-the best bait ever and would catch anything that swims. There was also a couple of varmints known as Mush rats and Them dang Revenooers.


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## GB Young

I don't know how ya'll knew about Soap Sally. She lived under my Uncle Troy's staircase, where he kept his R.C. airplanes that he hand made. Every time I went near it to look at them planes, he reminded me about her. circa 1963  greg


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## GB Young

burlap sacks were gunny sacks. My Granddaddy used them in ditches to catch snipe. He said it was easy. I sat in a wash all night waitin for one to run down it, so I could catch it. Fell asleep. Guess it got away. I believe I'll take my girls out this winter and give it a try.      greg


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## redneck_billcollector

bighonkinjeep said:


> Don't forget about Aints-ants and there were Tawba worms-the best bait ever and would catch anything that swims. There was also a couple of varmints known as Mush rats and Them dang Revenooers.



I knew some old hill folk that had transplanted to south Ga. and they called fire ants "Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ----Edited to Remove Profanity ---- aints" Well the edited part was the name alot of folks call urine.


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## Keeptruckin45

I always called whippor wills and night hawks   bull bats


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## Kawaliga

Agricultural lime was called "Land Plaster"
What is now called Lunch, we called it Dinner
What they call Dinner, we called it Supper


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## fishfryer

hey tetgunner, I had a discussion with a Massachusetts yankee at work once,the subject matter was our use of dinner and supper. As you stated,dinner was in the middle of the day,supper was at night. I told old yankee boy to look up dinner in the dictionary. It turns out that dinner is defined as the main meal of the day. In the old farming communities breakfast was big,but dinner was surely the biggest meal of the day. My grandmother only cooked two meals a day,supper was whatever was left from dinner. I believe that's where our use of dinner comes from. With so many people who have no idea of southern history new to the state,they sometimes have no clue. It's easy to put down a culture that you don't know about. I believe your'e a few years older than me, so you probably understand more than me.


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## rvick

buzzards were cyarn crows, blue herons were preacher birds, wood ducks were summer ducks,bass were trout, all wading birds were curlews or pond gannetts


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## Hogtown

fishfryer said:


> hey tetgunner, I had a discussion with a Massachusetts yankee at work once,the subject matter was our use of dinner and supper. As you stated,dinner was in the middle of the day,supper was at night. I told old yankee boy to look up dinner in the dictionary. It turns out that dinner is defined as the main meal of the day. In the old farming communities breakfast was big,but dinner was surely the biggest meal of the day. My grandmother only cooked two meals a day,supper was whatever was left from dinner. I believe that's where our use of dinner comes from. With so many people who have no idea of southern history new to the state,they sometimes have no clue. It's easy to put down a culture that you don't know about. I believe your'e a few years older than me, so you probably understand more than me.



Exactly right. A real old cracker couple that lived next to our family's homestead had a screen porch off the kitchen that was called the "eatin' porch".  The noon meal was they big meal of the day. Once they were through eating, the dirty dishes were cleared and all the food remained in place on the table they had a large piece of cheese cloth/mosquito netting that they placed over the table/food. When it was time for supper, they removed the cheese cloth/mosquito netting and ate the remains of dinner.  The old man (believe their name was Rawlins) was approaching 90 years old in the middle 1970's and he told me that was the way it had been his whole life.... Biscuits and coffee for breakfast, left over breakfast biscuits were eaten at dinner along with what ever else was being served and supper consisted of leftover dinner.  Said they did ALL the cooking for the day in the morning because in the days of wood stoves it was too hot to cook after about 10 AM.


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## Killdee

fishfryer said:


> hey tetgunner, I had a discussion with a Massachusetts yankee at work once,the subject matter was our use of dinner and supper. As you stated,dinner was in the middle of the day,supper was at night. I told old yankee boy to look up dinner in the dictionary. It turns out that dinner is defined as the main meal of the day. In the old farming communities breakfast was big,but dinner was surely the biggest meal of the day. My grandmother only cooked two meals a day,supper was whatever was left from dinner. I believe that's where our use of dinner comes from. With so many people who have no idea of southern history new to the state,they sometimes have no clue. It's easy to put down a culture that you don't know about. I believe your'e a few years older than me, so you probably understand more than me.



Ask him if Jesus ate the last Dinner, I dont think so. Guess its older than just us southerners.


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## Killdee

rvick said:


> buzzards were cyarn crows, blue herons were preacher birds, wood ducks were summer ducks,bass were trout, all wading birds were curlews or pond gannetts



I love this thread, I never heard curlews or pond gannetts being used.


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## Jayin J

I heard a snake referred to as a "no shoulders"


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## BigBrett

yard birds--chickens that run loose in the yard
narrow faces---chickens that are in the chicken pen.
crap** eaters--- dogs **not that exact word
breast birds--doves

all these where my pa's words, god i miss him.


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## Mako22

I still use yard birds and my Grandpa called black bass green trout.


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## Strych9

I've heard my Grandfather call a Meadow Lark a "yellow breasted quail"


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## Ole' Dad

*Ole Timers Names for Animals*

I love all of these old names and have heard the majority of those listed in this thread. I remember spanish moss being called swamp womens hair. Supposedly these swamp women would come out just before dark looking for little boys. I couldn't hardly wait for whoever was coming by to get me when we were hunting deer in the river bottoms, I would see all of that moss and I just knew them women were close. Also, whenever the bull-bats came out it was time to drink liqour to an extent.


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## mbhawkins123

i had a guy tell me in tifton that anyone above macon was a yankee....i dont think hes ever been to chatsworth


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## fishfryer

mbhawkins 123,I've made similar remarks as the Tifton man in the past.There's a creek just north of our town named Eecheconnee,I used to claim that as the cutoff.By the way Eecheconnee supposedly means deerpit in Creek.After thinking about that yankee deal,if I go to the local cemetery in any town and there are marked Confederate graves,that is plenty south for me.If brave men gave their all for that little plot of ground,I'd be proud to live there.


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## JustUs4All

fishfryer said:


> hey tetgunner, I had a discussion with a Massachusetts yankee at work once,the subject matter was our use of dinner and supper. As you stated,dinner was in the middle of the day,supper was at night. I told old yankee boy to look up dinner in the dictionary. It turns out that dinner is defined as the main meal of the day. In the old farming communities breakfast was big,but dinner was surely the biggest meal of the day. My grandmother only cooked two meals a day,supper was whatever was left from dinner. I believe that's where our use of dinner comes from. With so many people who have no idea of southern history new to the state,they sometimes have no clue. It's easy to put down a culture that you don't know about. I believe your'e a few years older than me, so you probably understand more than me.



Same here.  My grandmother cooked breakfast and Dinner.  After dinner, what was left was herded to the middle of the kitchen table and covered with a cloth made from a flower sack.  The leftovers were uncovered for supper.  There was always a few biscuits or sweet potatoes in the warming bin at the top of the Home Comfort wood stove.


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## Whiteeagle

I do recall an old my Mom sang when I was a kid many years ago that went " come home, come home , it's suppertime ; the evening's fading fast. come home, come home it's suppertime; we're coming home at last". Always made it on time as well as dinner around noon!


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## redneck_billcollector

mbhawkins123 said:


> i had a guy tell me in tifton that anyone above macon was a yankee....i dont think hes ever been to chatsworth



I have always heard that if you live above the gnat line you are a yankee.....'leastwise that is what my grandaddy used to say.


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## chiefsquirrel83

My Uncle's sayin's

Bucket Mouth-bass
Swamp Buck-big canecutter(Rabbit)
buttknockers-bullfrogs
Shingles-Big bream
Needlebutts-any bee


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## doublebarrel

smaller channel catfish-squeelers


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## joe sangster

'Round here , you couldn't take a drink 'til the bullbats started flying !   They started flying just before nitefall.  Some people call them Nightjars !

Joe


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## Redbow

In NC where I was born and raised and now live, we called a Crappie a White Perch. In SC where I lived and worked for 35 years, they called a Crappie a Goggle-Eye. A Warmouth was called a Mud Chub in NC. Also a Largemouth Bass was called a Chub in NC by many oldtimers when I was growing up here. 

My Grandpa always called a Copperhead a Popper Leaf for some reason...A Towhee was called a Joe Reet, and a Killdee was called a Killdeer. A house Wren was called a Jenny Wren by most everyone way back when I was a kid..


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## WarEagle 10

well i'm a fairly young guy, just now lookin down the barrel of the BIG two-oh but i've always been real keen on the way the old gaurd talked and adopted a lot of it myself. i've taken sever younger friends and friends little brothers snipe hunting, gotta watch those snipe litlle birds that can't fly with a loooong beak and a tail like a gerbil.
turkles-turtles
brahr-briar
plowers-pliers (from my granny and one of my favorites)
warsh-wash (dad)
wrech-rinse
all drinks except tea and water is officially considered a coke
backer-redman
any and all dip is snuff
marble-oh=malboro
wild dogs-coyotes
and i too was scared spitless about the possibility of runnin into ol soap sally


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## WarEagle 10

i just remembered one my uncle always warned me about and still to this day claims they're real but they must be awfully rare cuz i've never seen one. come to think of it i guess he's the only one that ever saw one.
coachwhip- snake, black in color, but the scary part is instead of biting ya it uses it's tail as a whip and accordin to my uncle a pop from a coachwhip will pop a tractor tire or break a youngin's leg......purty serious stuff!!


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## wareagle5.0

any of yall ever heard of a huggin molly?


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## wareagle5.0

nobody???????


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## Kendallbearden

armadillo= opossum on a half shell or a opossum with a pot.


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## MrBull

until I read all of this I thought some of these were the proper names for these animals.
Has anybody mentioned a coachwhip? I have always heard of these but never seen one.


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## safebuilder

My mothers family all called bass trout....also my Dad and his brother called the minners Snail Darters...remember the stopping of work on a hydro project(?) I think because of the snail darter?


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## Flaustin1

Funny thing is, I still use most of these words.


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## rvick

saw another thread on here today, someone was asking what a cat squirrel was. if it wasnt a fox squirrel, it was a cat squirrel.  i thought huggin molly was an old witch.


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## Bhrama

WarEagle 10 said:


> coachwhip- snake, black in color, but the scary part is instead of biting ya it uses it's tail as a whip and accordin to my uncle a pop from a coachwhip will pop a tractor tire or break a youngin's leg......purty serious stuff!!





MrBull said:


> Has anybody mentioned a coachwhip? I have always heard of these but never seen one.



We had coachwhips all over where I grew up . Daddy called them that anyway - and he told me that they would whip me if I got too close. 

Daddy called Black Racer snakes - Black Racers and he called them Coach Whips (I guess depending on his mood).
A Black Racer is a skinny all black snake that can move extremely fast when it wants to. A Coach Whip is only black on the head and part of its body. The rest of the body is browninsh/tannish and the scales are outlined in black. Makes them look like a whip. Black Racer and Coach Whip are the actual common names of the snakes.


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## Bhrama

rvick said:


> saw another thread on here today, someone was asking what a cat squirrel was. if it wasnt a fox squirrel, it was a cat squirrel.  i thought huggin molly was an old witch.



Grandaddy said:
1. little grey squirrel = grey squirrel. 
2. big grey squirrel = cat squirrel
3. reddish squirrel = fox squirrel
4. black squirrel = black squirrel


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## crokseti

Ya'll have covered most of the ones I knew growin up
in south Mississippi like sting-a-rees, pooldoos/ doodappers, & green trout.
 One fish we used to go after was a goggle-eye. We would find them up the river along the bank and use a stout pole to drop down between the roots where they lived. I'd say the closest thing would be a rock bass but these were usually 8 to 12 inches and thick.


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## MCBUCK

bighonkinjeep said:


> Don't forget about Aints-ants and there were Tawba worms-the best bait ever and would catch anything that swims. There was also a couple of varmints known as Mush rats and Them dang Revenooers.



We calle em "Tobby Worms" and you are right...they'll catch anything that swins.  Great for trout. (rainbow)

I searched the thread and didn't see anything about 
"red eyed trout"-as daddy used to call em.  They are red eyed bass, and not a shoal bass...but very similar.


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## Dirtroad Johnson

I was grown before I learned that a bass wasn't a trout & that mourning doves is actually what we hunt,my dad & his buddies always said trout instead of bass & they called the turtle dove a mourning dove.


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## Backlasher82

Strych9 said:


> I've heard my Grandfather call a Meadow Lark a "yellow breasted quail"



We call them Felarks.


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## Tvveedie

too many to read through so sorry for any duplicates, but i'll throw mine in there.

cricket spiders
gully washer
yard birds
grasshoppers (not katydid)
H0rney heads not chubs
manx = no tail kitties
locusts not cicadas
panfish = bream, crappie, shell cracker, perch, etc.
june bugs (not beetle)
dragonflies incorporated about 3-5 different species of insect


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## Artfuldodger

I though Joe-Ree was the real name of a Towhee until someone corrected me. My Dad also called the pileated woodpeckers, Lord Gods. Mom said dogs were always rolling in kyarn. Kyarn:
 A southern derivative of the word carrion, meaning dead and/or decaying flesh.
One of my Dad's sayings was: I saw a healthy Poor Joe in a dead live oak. Some kind of bird but i don't know what.


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## alphachief

Any Florida Cracker knows it's not an Ibis...it's a Curlew...and it taste like dove meat!


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## Jeff Raines

Artfuldodger said:


> My Dad also called the pileated woodpeckers, Lord Gods.



My dad called them Indian Hens.


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## olcop

We called em a spread natter in Pierce Co.
olcop
Almost forgot, big rain = lightard knot floater


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## KyDawg

Fishing worms were grunt worms. I guess that was because we grunted them out of the ground by driving a stake in the ground and rubbed a brick or rock over it to vibrate them to the surface.


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## G20

Back before Al Gore invented the internet, and only the semi well-to-do had mere encyclopedias, and education was sorely lacking, people around these parts, when they didn't know the correct name for something, often tacked "jack" onto the type of animal of which they did not know the name of.

For example, a chain pickeral was called a jackfish.  One could substitute "x" for for "fish", and always be ignorantly correct.


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## redneck_billcollector

One local name that I always heard, and still do, is white oak runner for the gray rat snake.  I don't think it could be called an old timer name though.  Another one I haven't seen on here, though it might be is "'baccer worm" those catapillers that liked to eat tobacco leaves that would sting you if they touched you.


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## pine nut

What about hoop snakes and coachwhips?  A hoop snake would grab its tail in its mouth and roll on the ground after ya.  It was said that the horn on its tail would stick in a tree trunk when it hit tha tree and the tree would die!  I think that would be "child abuse" now!


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## fish hawk

Pond Scoggin!!!


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## kmckinnie

10 pt buck - Wallhanger!


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## kmckinnie

In Texas,I've heard deer called speedbeef.
Swamp donkeys around here.


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## G20

kmckinnie said:


> In Texas,I've heard deer called speedbeef.
> Swamp donkeys around here.



Speedbeef - that cracked me up!


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## waddler

Gummunt brim (looked like a fly brim, furnished by the Gov.)
Skeeter hawks (dragonfly)
Black fish   (Grindle)


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## Ground hunter

We always call stumpknockers fly bream. I have no idea why.


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## WaltL1

hornpout = bullhead


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## joedublin

My father always said that anyone who had a limp had a "hitch in his git-along"


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