Satin Bowerbird

Hi Jenny

One of the many reasons for having a copy of some editions of
Cayley's "What Bird is That?" (as discussed recently on this
list) is that they explain the scientific name of species (if it
is not too new !).

For the Satin Bowerbird he says Ptilonorhynchus violaceus comes
from:
Greek ptilon = feather + Greek rhynchos = bill + Latin violaceus
= blue.  So that makes "Blue feather-bill".

I hope someone else will explain why it should be called a
feather-bill ! 

Michael Norris
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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