Neville Cayley, What Bird Is
That?, 1st edition, 1931: ‘Wedge-tailed Eagle
- Also called Eagle-hawk – a ridiculous name considering that it is
the largest species of Eagle in the world.’ [That ranking was
progressively revised downwards in subsequent editions.]
From: Mark Clayton [
Sent: Monday, 30 July 2007 3:06 PM
To: 'Whitworth, Benjamin - BRS';
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Eagle-hawk [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
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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