Excellent. However, for reasons I have given elsewhere, my
preference would be for ‘koel’, as in ‘magpie’ and ‘kookaburra’.
That would give us the three broad schools –
1)
Those who meticulously transcribe the ‘standard’
name (Christidis & Boles being the most favoured authority, others favouring
more recent suggestions);
2)
Those who feel obliged to have a go at the standard name, but often
get it wrong (eg ‘Kookaburra’, ‘Horsefield’s
Bronze-Cuckoo’);
3)
Those who yearn for shorter more convenient labels in the hope
they will become widely used and recognised (in which I count Roger and
myself).
I am not one to lecture others on how they should express
themselves, even accepting without inquiry or demur the occasional reference to
‘goodies’ (whatever they are).
However, I would like to see a little more poetry and
imagination. ‘Bump-beaks’ is good. Then there is ‘Brain-fever
Bird’. According to several sources that is a name used in India
for the koel in areas where the ‘true’ Brain-fever Bird (the Common
Hawk-Cuckoo) does not occur.
Anyway, one (at least) of them has been calling around here,
pre-dawn, midday or late afternoon for about a month.
From: roger curnow
[
Sent: Sunday, 18 November 2007 10:19 AM
To: COG
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Koel in Fisher
Not sure, but would it not make sense, in the limited
context of Canberra,
to decide that the name of what they are called is Koel and
call them that ?
Sort of like Magpie, only different.
-----
Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, November 18,
2007 9:21 AM
Subject: [canberrabirds] Koel
in Fisher
While running yesterday (17/11) morning I heard a Koel
calling from the vicinity of Eleanora Cres in Fisher.
Is the correct name, this year at least, of these birds
Common Koel or Pacific Koel?
