G'day all,

Down here in the Antipodes (Sydney, Australia) I have never heard the "roo-ards) pronunciation ... even from assorted regional Englishpersons. I checked with The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, 1944, 2nd revision 1973, 1991 reprint ... and it only recognises the "ree-wards" (sorry, can't type phonetics in HTML) pronunciation, with which I am familiar.

Presumably Bald Eagle's mother cleaved to some regional variant.

Regards,

Bob Bolton