G’day Benj and all,
Eagle-hawk is an old name for the
Wedge-tailed Eagle. As with most people I have no idea where the Aboriginal
clans come from in Australia
but don’t rule out the Yellow-bellied Glider as a possibility for the
flying squirrel. When working in the forests of eastern Australia in
the 70’s and 80’s for CSIRO, we were often told by the felling
crews they had seen “flying squirrels”. They are very obvious at
night, especially when they are vocalizing!
Mark
From: Whitworth,
Benjamin - BRS [
Sent: Monday, 30 July 2007 2:54 PM
To:
Cc: Whitworth, Benjamin - BRS
Subject: [canberrabirds]
Eagle-hawk [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
What species is an
Eagle-hawk?
.
I have been reading the
Moth Hunters of the ACT (Flood, 1996). One of the Ngarigo (Aboriginal
tribe) clan totems is Eagle-hawk, plus we have Eagle-hawk winery, and the
region.
But I don’t know
what one is.
I checked Birds of prey
of the World, no Eagle-hawks, but there are references to Hawk-Eagles, but they
are in SE Asia.
Also, obviously there are Goshawks and Sparrowhawks.
My thought is, it is an
old name, from around the turn of the century, well 1900. This is
roughly when the survey of aboriginal moities and clans took place. But
which species does it refer to?? My guess is little eagle.
Other interesting totem
names for ‘clans’ included rabbit-rat. Not sure what that is? They
had also bandicoot, so perhaps a rabbit-rat is a potoroo or bettong or rat
kangaroo.
Another interesting one was flying squirrel, and the totem ‘next in
size to flying squirrel'. Which way?? There are 3 species it could be. Squirrel
glider, sugar glider or feathertail glider, or maybe even greater glider.
Benj-hawk
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