canberrabirds

A to Z answers, results

To: <>
Subject: A to Z answers, results
From: "Geoffrey Dabb" <>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 13:30:42 +1100

Thanks to those who had the patience and stamina to take this on.  Some had to be a bit hard  -  no point lollying up Roadrunners to you lot.

 

For better or worse, my list is as follows:

 

*  =  Species on Australian list 

 

A  -         AUK, late Great

B  -          BLOOD’s Bird of Paradise Paradisea bloodi  (Collected by Ned Blood ca 1949 and named for him by Tom Iredale.  Now treated as a hybrid.  Lilian Medland illustration from skin presumably in Aust Museum)  One point for BIRD of Paradise.  I will send a fuller note about this interesting bird

C  -          COCK-OF-THE  ROCK, Andean or Guianan

D*  -       DUNLIN  -  a wader on the ‘uncommon and vagrant species’ list for Australia

E*  -       EGYPT  -  popular name for Crescent Honeyeater, from call.

F  -          FORKTAIL (this is White-crowned) – emblem of Oriental Bird Club

G  -         GRIFFON Vulture

H*  -       HIRCINE MAGPIE -  colonists’ name for Pied Currawong (‘Hircine’ = goatlike.  Said to be ‘good eating, but hinder parts have a strong goatish smell’.)  Some of these names deserve to be revived!

I  -           IVORY-BILLED Woodpecker

J*  -        ‘JABIRU’  -  the original illustration (of the Australian bird) being so captioned

K -           KEA  -  the sheep-eating parrot of NZ (note sheep in background)

L*  -        ‘LARK’

M  -        ‘MAGPIE’  -  I am not sure which of the magpie/jay group this is meant to be. In an old (1880) book this illustration is captioned “Red [possibly for ‘Red-billed’] Magpie of China”

N*  -      NIGHT Parrot

O  -         Baltimore ORIOLE  -  emblem of US baseball team, sometimes known as the “O’s”

P  -          PITYRIASIS gymnocephala (Bornean Bristlehead or Bald-headed Wood-shrike, relative of A Magpie etc)  -  As you might know, ‘pityriasis’ is also the name of a skin ailment

Q*  -      QUITCHUP – ‘popular  name’ of  YF Honeyeater, from call.  (The Quitchup Migration has a nice ring;  could be the name of a Robert Ludlum novel)

R  -          RHINOCEROS Hornbill

S  -          SMEW  -  a handsome little duck of the northern hemisphere

T  -          TITMOUSE, Bearded (or Bearded Reedling Panurus biarmicus)

U*  -      UNDULATED Parrot (Budgerigar)  -  given by Latham, from undulatus ‘wavy’.  One point for scientific name

V  -         Egyptian VULTURE

W*  -     WESTERN Bowerbird

X*  -       XANTHOTIS macleayanus,  Macleay’s Honeyeater

Y  -          YELLOW-BILLED Cuckoo  -  a common (and non-parasitic) cuckoo of the eastern US

Z*  -       ZOSTEROPS lateralis, Silvereye

 

Supplementaries  -

 

D*  -       DOODLE-DOO  -  popular name for Peaceful Dove, from call. 

G*  -      New Holland GOATSUCKER (Owlet-nightjar) -  picture from Governor Phillip’s Voyage 1789

T  -          TABUAN Parrot (Red or Maroon Shining Parrot P tabuensis )  -  on early stamp of Tonga (‘Tonga-tabu’).  Name Tabuan Parrot wrongly applied to  King Parrot in White’s Journal 1790.  A bit tough perhaps, but only one point for tabuensis

V -          Red-eyed VIREO  -  described by Roger Tory Peterson as the most abundant bird in eastern US woodlands in warmer months.  From Audubon engraving

 

Under the rules as outlined there was a maximum of 60 points.  

 

Mark deserves an award for the most detailed responses, pinpointing the species and even the source.  (In Sabah recently, Maxwell Smart-like, Mark came THAT close to ticking the Bornean Bristlehead!)   I appreciated the witty, erudite and mock-erudite suggestions of Denis and Shaun.  Pity there’s only me to appreciate them, but I won’t prolong the exercise here by reproducing them.  I applied the scoring system previously indicated.  The scores were amazingly high.  I’d assumed there’d be total blanks for some of the above.  Steve Holliday got an astonishing 58 points losing a point each only on the tricky ‘B’ and the Tabuan Parrot.  He might have got the lot but for what is known in the quiz business as the ‘John Lennard Rule’  (see Rules, earlier message).  Mark, and Leo (& team) got 51 with Harv and Lucy/Damien very close behind.  Then Shaun, Noel, Paul and Kevin W close behind that.  All – including the self-effacing Denis - were way ahead of Priscilla’s 33.3%.   Philip got some of the tricky ones in his incomplete entry.

 

The rat-cunning prize goes to Harvey for ‘Totogi G’tori’ which he noticed inscribed on the parrot stamp.  From my references I gather that Tongan for that well-known bird is either ‘Kaka’ or ‘Koki’, so ‘Totogi G’tori’ is probably something like ‘Postage & revenue’, but one point for the try.

 

With aids like the JD Macdonald book the Aussie colloquials were pretty much easy meat, goat-flavoured Hircine Magpies apart.  I’d expected the most difficult to be the below, but the best point-scorers on those were as follows.   Odd that Canberra birdwatchers can spot a vireo.  What an international lot we are.  Bargain air fares, I suppose. 

 

 

Steve

Mark

Harv

Paul

Lucy/Dam

Shaun

Leo

Blood’s

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Hircine

2

0

2

0

0

0

0

Oriole

2

0

0

2

2

2

2

Pityr

2

2

0

0

0

0

2

Yellow-b

2

0

0

0

0

2

0

Tabuan

1

1

1

2

1

1

1

Vireo

2

2

2

0

2

2

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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