# What is the Augur Buzzard supposed to augur?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-augur-buzzard-supposed-to-augur/351001>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 3, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-augur-buzzard-supposed-to-augur/351001 "2006-04-03T01:07:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-augur-buzzard-supposed-to-augur/351001/1 "2006-04-03T01:07:51Z")

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Recently I’ve been doing some informal research on the Augur Buzzard. So far I’ve found a fair amount of information on its distribution, habits, vital stats and diet; also, I seem to detect hints of a long-standing feud in ornithological circles regarding its taxonomic relationship to the Jackal Buzzard. \*“Some less reputable field guides assign this bird the unwarranted status of subspecies. The discerning reader will no doubt intelligently disregard such patently idiotic toffee-nosed ravings.” \* --That sort of thing.

However, there’s one piece of information that the literature seems uniformly unwilling to shed light on: what the common name signifies. Presumably the Augur Buzzard was (or still is) considered an augur of _something_. But what, and by whom? If you see one, is it supposed to be good or bad luck? Does their appearance predict rain? If one flies down the chimney, does it mean that someone in the house is going to die?

I’m hopeful that the answer reveals some intriguingly obscure bit of ornithomantic trivia, so I’ll be intensely disappointed if the damn bird is named in honor of famed ornithologist Jehosephat Augur.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-augur-buzzard-supposed-to-augur/351001/2 "2006-04-03T02:09:35Z")

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Disappointingly, my _Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names_ has only this to say:

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> L. _augur_, an augur, soothsayer (_avis,_ a bird); an honored office in ancient times, when the future was foretold by observing the heavens, birds, mammals, sacred objects, and minor calamities. The observation of eagles, hawks, and owls was particularly significant.

The species was named by the German naturalist Eduard Rüppell, who worked in North Africa and Ethiopia in the early 1800s. Rüppell may have had nothing more than the general use of hawks in augury when he named the species. My other references on raptors fail to shed any more light on the subject.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-augur-buzzard-supposed-to-augur/351001/3 "2006-04-03T02:11:50Z")

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I think your answer lies in the roots of [augur](http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&resource=Webster's&word=augur&quicksearch=on&sourceid=Mozilla-search) rather than the bird itself:

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> Au"gur (?), n. [L. Of uncertain origin: the first part of the word is perh. fr. L. avis bird, and the last syllable, gur, equiv. to the Skr. gar to call, akin to L. garrulus garrulous.]
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> 1. (Rom. Antiq.) An official diviner who foretold events by the singing, chattering, flight, and feeding of birds, or by signs or omens derived from celestial phenomena, certain appearances of quadrupeds, or unusual occurrences.

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> augury concerns signs brought from the gods by birds.

[Ancient Augury](http://www.religioromana.net/augury.htm)  
[Augurs in Rome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augur)