Originally published at: I love these old animal shaped downspouts - Boing Boing
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We’ll, we don’t call it Wasserhahn for nothing.
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gargoyle (n.)
“grotesque carved waterspout,” connected to the gutter of a building to throw down water clear of the wall, common in 13c.-16c. buildings; late 13c., gargoile, also garguile, gargule, etc., “carved mouth of a rain spout, a gargoyle,” from Old French gargole, gargoule “throat;” also “carved downspout,” in the form of a serpent or some other fanciful shape, also from Medieval Latin gargola, gargulio (see gargle (v.)).
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This isn’t hers, but my grandmother used old rubber boots for the downspouts.
Hers would have been held in place with a scrap of an old leather belt.
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Why did you include a picture of an ordinary water spigot?
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Back in 2002, we visited Paris and I spotted this fancy downspout on a corner of the Louvre. Even the pipes were fancy carved.
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Ah, Google Translate just gives “water tap” or “faucet”… I had to look around a bit more to find that the literal translation to English is “water rooster” 
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and from that, gargle
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