Philip Veerman wrote:
"Interestingly Peter wrote:
'Two other species of African distribution are respectively called:
Water Dikkop (B. vermiculatus)
Spotted Dikkop (B. capensis)
The South Africans know how to allocate a great name.'
That is true but a little amusing. I'd almost bet that "Dikkop" means
literally "Thick Head", which is funny in itself, that two parts of the bird
are called thick. As such it is the same as the early name for our Whistlers
(and still the same as literally Pachycephala). We could almost go in
endless circles and connect Stone-curlews with our whistling voiced
passerines.
Sorry my earlier message went out twice, once before I had finished my
typing and punctuation on it.
Philip"
Thanks for your kind comments about South Africans - we really need them
after the beating we took from Bangladesh in the Cricket World cup in Guyana
last night (South African time). Unfortunately the name of both species -
Water Dikkop and Spotted Dikkop - has been officially changed to Thick-knee
and appears as such in our latest Field Guides. For a short time it was
proposed that they become Stone-curlews, but this did not last for long.
Philip Veerman is right in his translation of "Dikkop" as "Thick Head" which
sounds like I feel when having partaken of too much red wine. Why did
someone feel that "Thick-knee" is an insulting name?
Cheers
John McAllister
Wakkerstroom
South Africa
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
