For interests sake, the juvenile Pacific Gull is called a Mollyhawk or a
Mollygull in Port Lincoln, SA.
This fact actually cost me $100. I had a bet with a friend who had a history of
pulling my leg (e.g. he asked me one day if I could get the "left-handed
staple-gun with the counter attached to it from the shed please"). When he told
me there was such a thing as a Mollygull (I study birds so was pretty confident
he was pulling my leg again) I bet him $100 that he was trying to trick me
again and it wasn't going to work. I am now studying a bird in Port Lincoln and
sure enough they sometimes call Pacific Gulls, Mollygulls. Bugger.
Angela
Quoting :
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. Re: Pacific Gull (andrewt)
> 2. Re: Unknown call (andrewt)
> 3. Re: Pacific Gull (Peter Shute)
> 4. Re: Pacific Gull (L&L Knight)
> 5. Re: Pacific Gull (Peter Shute)
> 6. Re: Pacific Gull (andrewt)
> 7. Re: Pacific Gull (Dave Torr)
> 8. Re: Pacific Gull (Peter Shute)
> 9. Re: Pacific Gull (Dave Torr)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:23:41 +1000
> From: andrewt <>
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Pacific Gull
> To: Birding-aus <>
> Message-ID: <>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 07:52:57PM +1000, Carl Clifford wrote:
> > Dear old Dr. John Latham is to blame. He named the bird in his
> > "Supplementum indicis ornithologici sive systematis ornithologiae" in
> > 1802. Unfortunately Dr. Latham never voyaged as far as the Antipodes (I
> > don't think he ever left England), and had to rely on specimens supplied
> > by others, which would undoubtedly have been collected from along the
> > southern NSW and Tasmanian east coasts, and named them eponymously from
> > their collection location. It is a pity that not much was known about
> > what lived west of Bass Strait at that time, otherwise Larus p. might
> > very well have ended up with a very much different name if he knew the
> > true distribution.
>
> Latham described Pacific Gull, and quite a few other Australian species,
> from a drawing by Thomas Watling (linked below). Watling was transported
> for forgery and assigned to the surgeon and naturalist John White.
> White left Australia before Bass&Flinders began their explorations south
> and Watling gives an aboriginal name, so it was likely drawn from a bird
> seen or collected near Sydney.
>
> Andrew
>
>
http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/first-fleet/nathist.dsml?sa=1&lastDisp=list&beginIndex=198
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008 02:07:37 +1000
> From: andrewt <>
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Unknown call
> To:
> Message-ID: <>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 05:07:00PM +0800, wrote:
> > The call is a double note: chew, chew! Almost
> > like that of a whipbird but without the lead up to the crack. It makes
> > the double note and then stops for about 5-10 seconds and then makes
> > the two notes again.
>
> The double note is the female Whipbird contribution to the familiar
> duet and you sometimes hear females calling without a male calling
> (yellow robin is a very plausible too).
>
> On the subject of duets, I'm at an acoustic communication conference where
> Peter Slater - not the Australian field guide author, the UK biologist &
> author of an excellent book on birdsong gave a keynote talk on duetting.
> He talking mainly about duetting in the wren family (Troglodytidae)
> ranging from simple to elaborate but he finished this is by saying
> the most interesting work on function of duets was this work on an
> Australian bird:
>
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/no-larking-matter-a-duets-dire-precision/2007/06/04/1180809433923.html
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:38:28 +1000
> From: "Peter Shute" <>
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Pacific Gull
> To: <>, <>
> Message-ID:
> <>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Just for interest, what was the aboriginal name?
>
> Peter Shute
>
>
> --------------------------
> Sent using BlackBerry
>
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