Well, I'm glad you explained yourself, Barry. When you said "gooney-bird," I thought you were talking about an airplane. Oh, so that's where the term came from.

Now, another term that has confused me is the "great speckled bird." My concordance leads me to Jeremiah 12:9. I looked that up in the King James Version and now I know:

Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the other birds round about are against her; Come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

The more modern translations I'm used to translate it "vulture" or "bird of prey" and make the bird the aggressor, not the victim. Now that I know the context, the term makes sense.
-Joe Offer-