birding-aus

nankeen or rufous?

To: "Birding-aus" <>
Subject: nankeen or rufous?
From: "Tom and Mandy Wilson" <>
Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 17:29:00 +1000
Laurie is right - to our modern eyes, the night heron is more obviously rufous above than nankeen below, but as to obscurity, I strongly suspect that when the "nankeen" birds were first described, nankeen was not an obscure term as it was a material in common use in the 18th & 19th centuries. Obviously, time have moved on and nankeen is obscure to us. (Using the MD Definition - the bird should be "chestnut-brown night heron"!) (Perhaps I didn't understand the other question - aren't both male and female rufous whistlers rufous, the other dominant colour being grey, and there's already a grey whistler?)
Cheers
Tom Wilson




<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU