Cecil’s bafflement at “spuggy” in the “Classic” column on “Ollie, ollie, &c.” can be easily remedied. See the poem “Briggflatts” by the British (Northumbrian) poet Basil Bunting: its epigraph is “The spuggies are fledged.” Bunting’s note: “little sparrows”. --N
So what does “fledged” mean? Does this poet use only obscure English words unknown outside of the UK?
fledge[[< ME flegge, ready to fly < OE (un)flycge, (un)fledged, akin to MHG vlucke , MDu vlugghe]] to grow the feathers necessary for flying.
1 to rear (a young bird) until it is able to fly .
2 to supply or adorn with or as if with feathers or down; specif., to fit (an arrow, etc.) with feathers.
hence “fledgling” - a young bird that can’t fly yet.
Thank you, UncleBeer, for your full-fledged answer.
I see that “fledged” has already gotten a gloss; but just to follow up a different point: Bunting’s use of dialect-words is meant to insist that the history and language of the UK is highly plural and particular–“spuggy” would be just as opaque to a Londoner as it is to you or me in North America. One wonders where in the UK Cecil’s example using “spuggy” was collected–presumably northern England.
Incidentally Bunting’s line is a translation of a line of Italian which he also quotes–I forget the source but maybe Cavalcanti?–“Son los pasariellos del mal pelo exidos”. --N