All I can say, Denis, (no, as will appear it’s not really
all I can say) is that I was saying “Dabchick” long before I ever
said ‘Little Grebe’ or ‘Australian Grebe’. The
Cayley I would have used said “also called Dabchick” for both the
Little Grebe and Hoary-headed Grebe. Gould attributed “Dab-chick”
for Hoary-headed Grebe to “Colonists of the Swan River”.
However, JA Leach attached a stern schoolmasterly “(e)” (for error)
to Dabchick not only for the coot, but for both the smaller grebes. The
1927 Australian Encyclopaedia gives ‘dabchick’ for both the small
grebes, as does the present Macquarie. The 1926 RAOU list, which
gives few alternative names, has ‘Dabchick’ in brackets after ‘Little
Grebe’. Moreover, the 1975 panel which fixed most of our present
names considered ‘Australian Dabchick’ but preferred ‘Australasian
Grebe’.
From: Denis Wilson
[
Sent: Saturday, 30 October 2010 9:42 PM
To: John Layton; Canberra Birds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] What's a baby grebe called?
To
Dabchick or Not to Dabchick?
Apparently
I am blessed with a memory to match my increasing age.
That's
why I attached the Wiki link to "Dabchick"
Anyway,
it was only intended as a linguistic joke.
