It's main name is Burhinus magnirostris.
The fiddling with common names may have something to do with the
personality types of birders who form committees.
As to why such a nice bird that is neither a curlew nor has any
particular affinity with stones is lumbered with the name "Bush Stone-
Curlew", the story probably goes like this:
The first Burhinus to be given an English name lived in arid
environments and had a call like a Eurasian Curlew, so it was called a
Stone-Curlew. Being unimaginative types, the ornithologists applied
the appellation "stone-curlew" to related birds.
A better question is why the Beach and Great Thick-knees were also
lumbered with the name stone-curlew when they belong to a different
genus - Esacus. While you can see that B. magnirostris looks like B.
oedicnemus, E. magnirostris and E. recurvirostris are quite different.
Regards, Laurie
On 17/04/2008, at 7:59 PM, Peter Shute wrote:
Interesting about Cayley calling it Stone-curlew in 1946. My 1959
edition calls it Bush Curlew, or Stone Plover, Weeloo or Willaroo.
I can understand them changing the main name with the current
fashion, but why fiddle with the alternative names?
Peter Shute
--------------------------
Sent using BlackBerry
|
