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Tim,
That is all very well but by "saying 'Here is an
albatross', without naming the species", especially when there are several
species of albatross showing on the TV at the same time but he is only talking
about the Wandering Albatross, this fails to highlight biological diversity, as
in the range of species in existence. Obviously that was not David
Attenborough's intention, but it is one of the problems that leads to people
using words like "big chicken hawk, little chicken hawk".
Let us face it, shuffling old words does not
give enough options to cover all of biological diversity. To some people
the most obvious thing about a BFCS is its black face, to others the shufflewing
habit, to others the churring call. By all means invent new words. Someone at
some stage invented the word Jabiru for Jabiru and "hawk". If you want, why
not come up with "Blizle" for Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher or "Cranot"
for Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike. Eventually all Cuckoo-shrikes could then be
"Cranots". It will work brilliantly in a century or two when everyone is used to
them and we can get rid of silly throwback words that link to unrelated European
names for taxa. After all, "Blizle" and "Cranot" are no more intrinsically
stupid than "Robin" and "Wren" and easier than the names we use. However in the
meantime it will be awfully confusing and I would prefer to stick with the
"official" recommended names.
Philip
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