I think that Trevor Ford and Denise Goodfellow have got it exactly right
regarding hyphens and capitalisation of vernacular names.
However, whereas I am complete agreement with them I fear that it will not
be correctness that wins the day no matter how much or how well it is
promoted; some common usage, right or wrong, will eventually establish
itself - which is not to say we shouldn't try to help the rest of the world
to get it right!
I remember, as a schoolboy, realising the incorrectness of 12am, most
unique, etc and truly believing that these mistakes would be ironed out -
then 10 or 20 years later being genuinely surprised to find that people were
still saying such things - now another 10 or 20 years later these are still
commonly used, and frustrating as anything! All that has changed is that
I've had to learn to live with it, reluctantly - while the list has grown to
include less/fewer, imply/infer, pathos/bathos and so many more.
Anyway, Denise I agree with you completely, let's keep trying.
By the way I enjoyed your posting on aggression, and I gather you're well
and truly in the north, but where exactly are you?
Black cockies calling outside - got to run!!
Bill Jolly
"Abberton", Helidon, Qld
ph 07 46976111
fax 07 46976056
email:
Visit our website at: www.abberton.org
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Goodfellow
Sent: Saturday, 31 July 1999 6:41
To: birding Aus
Subject: birding-aus Bird Aggression
The occasional Bar-shouldered Dove to visit the feeding site on our
verandah is aggressive to virtually anything else that gets in the way
including Yellow Oriole.
They will raise a wing to scare other doves off, but adopt another tactic
with smaller birds. They will actually pick Double-barred Finches up by
the back feathers and chuck them bodily off the feeding platform.
However Chestnut-breasted Mannikins have a way around this. They land en
masse on the feeding platform, and often on top of the dove which usually
retreats.
Occasionally a Helmeted Friarbird will commandeer the platform and then
no one else gets a look in. But in the last few days another, bigger
bird has turned up. It will be interesting to see what strategies other
birds adopt when confronted with an Orange-footed Scrubfowl.
Lastly we used to have a one-winged Brown Falcon and the only creature
that ever stole his food was our dog. But then the falcon used to steal
hers as well.
Denise Goodfellow
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