Hi Tim,
All sounds pretty good (I'd push for Tasmanian Gull!!!), except for
one small 'error'. I'm sure you meant to say that only the EAST coast
of Victoria and Tasmania borders the Pacific Ocean (someone has to be
the pedant).
Cheers,
JohnTongue
PS. maybe the scientific name of the "new" Tasmania Gull should be
reset at Larus dolbiensis??
On 15/08/2008, at 3:52 PM, Tim Dolby wrote:
Hi all,
Just for a bit of fun (it's Friday after all) I thought I'd question
the appropriateness of the name of the Pacific Gull.
Recently Grant Brosie asked about the status of Pacific Gull in NSW.
Basically it seems that they are uncommon to rare in NSW. NSW
borders the Pacific Ocean. By contrast they are common in Victoria,
Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. From what I can
gather only the west coast of Victoria and Tasmania borders the
Pacific Ocean (I could be wrong, in which case everything I'm saying
is wrong). The rest of these areas either border the India Ocean /
or Southern Ocean - and the Pacific Gull is common in an area known
as Bass Striat.
So the question is why is it called a Pacific Gull? Surely it should
be called something else!
For example the Atherton Scrubwren is called the Atherton Scrubwren
because it's found on the Atherton Tableland, the Chatham Albatross
is a Chatham Albatross because it breeds on the Chatham Islands.
Similarly the Northern Scrub-Robin is called a a Northern Scrub-
Robin because it's found in northern Australia, and the Southern
Scrub-Robin... well you get the idea.
So, here are some suggestion as alternative names for the Pacific
Gull (Larus pacificus), most of which are stupid:
Bass Strait Gull
Great Southern Gull or just Southern Gull
Victorian Gull
Tasmanian Gull
South Australian Gull (maybe not)
Western Australian Gull
Indian Ocean Gull
Large-billed Gull (although Larus crassirostris, the scientific
name for the Black-tailed Gull, means large-billed gull)
Very-large-billed Gull
Red-tipped-billed Gull
Large Black-backed Gull
Pacific Gull (oh, hang on.. whoops)
Australian Gull
Simon (why not?)
Dolby's Gull (because I thought about this in the first place!)
Cheers,
Tim Dolby
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