Following up on Ian Fraser's post:
I did not agree with the idea of having a poll as a means of choosing names.
I think the Recommended English Names put out by the RAOU committee in 1978
(if my memory serves me correctly, which it does decreasingly often these
days!) should stand. I believe that the only basis for changing them is via
a reasoned case. In each case, the committee provided reasons for their
choice. For example, of Nankeen Kestrel and Nankeen Night-Heron, they said
that a) the word Nankeen was obsolete, no longer in common use and most
people didn't know what it meant anyway; and b)in any case, the colours of
the Kestrel and the Night-Heron did not correspond to the colour designated
by "nankeen" in any case. These struck me as perfectly sound reasons, and I
think it was a retrograde step to go back to Nankeen in these two cases.
If a majority of voters vote for The Ballad of Eskimo Nell as their
favourite poem in the forthcoming poetry contest, does this transform the
ballad into something of high literary worth which every person interested
in literature should strive to master???? It's unfortunately too long for a
national anthem, otherwise I would be tempted to suggest it as a replacement
for that mawkish ditty Advance Australia Fair.
John Penhallurick
Associate Professor John M. Penhallurick<>
Canberra, Australia
Phone BH( 61 2) 6201 2346 AH (61 2) 62585428
FAX (61 2) 6258 0426
Snail Mail Faculty of Communication
University of Canberra,A.C.T.2601, AUSTRALIA
OR PO Box 3469, BMDC, BELCONNEN, ACT 2617, AUSTRALIA
"I'd rather be birding!"
"Vivat,crescat,floreat Ornithologia"
Hartert,Vog.pal.Fauna,p.2016.
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