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Little Kingfisher scientific name

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Subject: Little Kingfisher scientific name
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Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:26:41 +1100
On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 02:06:06PM +1100, Carl Clifford wrote:
> Call it whatever you like, because whichever name you use, someone
> will say you are wrong.

My knowledge of Latin is mostly limited to what I learnt from Monty
Python's "Life of Brian", but I remember reading in C&B 2008 that
similar name changes are due to Latin grammatical gender.

According to Wikipedia, Ceyx was "the son of Eosphorus and the king
of Thessaly", so presumably the genus name is also masculine.
That would make "C. pusillus" the technically correct specific name
- "pusilla" should be feminine.  (However there are some exceptions
e.g.  "nauta" - sailor - is masculine.)

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
   Paul Taylor                           Veni, vidi, tici -
                    I came, I saw, I ticked.

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