Common names discussion

[Syd Curtis <>]

Apologies in advance to anyone who finds the following inappropriate for
B-aus.  I tried to send it just to Laurie, but didn't succeed.

S.

----------
From: "Mail Delivery System"
<>
Date: 26 Jul 2008 09:15:57 +0800
To: 
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

The following message to <> was undeliverable.

From: Syd Curtis <>
Date: Wednesday, 23 July 2008 11:15 AM
To: L&L Knight <>
Subject: Common Names Discussion

Laurie has written:

> From: L&L Knight <>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:01:57 +1000
> To: Birding-Aus <>
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Common Names Discussion
> 
> I've received an off-line suggestion from a birding wag with public
> standards that the proper phrase for a birding forum is "have your
> crake and eat it too".
> 
> In the interests of harmonising birding and culinary terms, I will
> rephrase my assertion to "There's no reason why you can't have your
> Spotted Crake and eat it too."

Thanks Laurie.  And I am tempted to comment apropos of Chris Baxter's
contribution to the common names names discussion, that he was being a bit
picky where he says:

>  If a person is new to birdwatching then why corrupt
>  them with these inaccurate common names from the start. It just compounds
>  the problem. For example: Shag for Cormorant (we do have a shag-the Imperial
>  Shag-why not confine the name to it);

HANZAAB lists 19 species of Phalacrocorax: three "Cormorants" and the rest
"Shags".  BUT it gives "Shag" under "Other English names" for each of the
Cormorants.  All of which I mention by way of excuse for quoting the little
verse by that well-known poet "Anon.":

    The common Cormorant or Shag
        Lays its eggs in a paper-bag.

    But what these unobservant birds
        Fail to realise is that herds

    Of bears with buns
        Will steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

So, I'm easy with Cormorant or Shag.

Cheers

Syd

===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, 
send the message:
unsubscribe 
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================