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Fra:
På vegne av Chris Gregory
Sendt: 18. februar 2008 12:46
Til: Birding Aus
Emne: Re: [Birding-Aus] Vagrant Gull
Hi All
I know this hasn't much to do with the price of fish but what are Herring Gulls
doing in Mongolia anyway - let alone Cooktown? Herrings come from the North Sea
and were mostly fished out years ago, which is why it's hard to get a decent
kipper these days and Mongolia would have to be one of the furthest places on
the planet from the sea or do they have good rubbish tips?
Maybe Herring refers to the herring-bone pattern on the feathers like those
suits I used to wear in the 70's. But that's daft because it would be like
calling a Fig bird a Fig bird because it looks like a fig
Chris Gregory
Dear Chris,
Just last week a ship here in N.Norway took the largest herring
catch in one haul ever, and catches generally were so rich that the authorities
decided to allow only night catches for a while. So the herring is far from
extinct in Europe! (In Norwegian, by the way, it is the Baltic Gull, Larus f.
fuscus, that is called sildemåse= herring gull, while the Herring Gull is
prozaically called gråmåse= grey gull. As it is the Baltic Gull that is the
real 'sea-gull' of the two, the Norwegian name---and the german Heringsmöwe for
the same bird---are better than the English Herring Gull for L. argentatus, a
born opportunist, who probably only gets herring outside fast food restaurants)
As to Mongolia, I remember a short paper years ago, I think in
the bulletin of the Br.Ornithol. Club, interestingly called: 'The first record
of the Mongolian Plover from Mongolia'. So the English names are not always
completely relevant for the distribution; nor of course are the scientific
names: the Gentoo Penguin is saddled with the name Pygoscelis papua!!
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
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