Hi all,
Just for a bit of fun (it's Friday after all) I thought I'd question the
appropriateness of the name of the Pacific Gull.
Recently Grant Brosie asked about the status of Pacific Gull in NSW. Basically
it seems that they are uncommon to rare in NSW. NSW borders the Pacific Ocean.
By contrast they are common in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western
Australia. From what I can gather only the west coast of Victoria and Tasmania
borders the Pacific Ocean (I could be wrong, in which case everything I'm
saying is wrong). The rest of these areas either border the India Ocean / or
Southern Ocean - and the Pacific Gull is common in an area known as Bass Striat.
So the question is why is it called a Pacific Gull? Surely it should be called
something else!
For example the Atherton Scrubwren is called the Atherton Scrubwren because
it's found on the Atherton Tableland, the Chatham Albatross is a Chatham
Albatross because it breeds on the Chatham Islands. Similarly the Northern
Scrub-Robin is called a a Northern Scrub-Robin because it's found in northern
Australia, and the Southern Scrub-Robin... well you get the idea.
So, here are some suggestion as alternative names for the Pacific Gull (Larus
pacificus), most of which are stupid:
Bass Strait Gull
Great Southern Gull or just Southern Gull
Victorian Gull
Tasmanian Gull
South Australian Gull (maybe not)
Western Australian Gull
Indian Ocean Gull
Large-billed Gull (although Larus crassirostris, the scientific
name for the Black-tailed Gull, means large-billed gull)
Very-large-billed Gull
Red-tipped-billed Gull
Large Black-backed Gull
Pacific Gull (oh, hang on.. whoops)
Australian Gull
Simon (why not?)
Dolby's Gull (because I thought about this in the first place!)
Cheers,
Tim Dolby
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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