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Hi Tim
Full support with minor reservations. My comments are
INTENDED to assist rather than complicate the matter.
Reservations: terms of reference for a BA or
whatever group should recognise possibility of regional/State names: the Blackie
might refer to different species in Victoria and WA. Also species
could be lumped - most of our Ravens are, to me, just that.
Anyhow I've got a strong feeling that quite a few are hybrid
Australian/Little Ravens.
I hope that names used in the past 100 years
or so would considered, e.g. Diamondbird for Pardalote and
Warbler for Gerygone..
Also names used by the Aboriginal groups. NZ has
Maori names for many birds and 10 years ago ANCA produced "Australian Names for
Australian Rodents". At least one of those - Rakali for the Australian
Water Rat - is coming into use widely in Victoria despite resistance by
some mammalogists and linguists who have told me that throughout southern
central Victoria there is no known Aboriginal noun beginning with
"R".
But then down here we invaders have learned to live with
"Kangaroo"!
Michael Norris
Bayside Friends of Native Wildlife
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