Mark
Good call, but from my understanding of Aboriginal names they named
things that they could eat or use or that otherwise affected their lives
and ignored the rest. So we would still be stuck with names for the
others.
Greg Little
Greg Little - Principal Consultant
General Flora and Fauna
PO Box 526
Wallsend, NSW, 2287, Australia
Ph 02 49 556609
Fx 02 49 556671
www.gff.com.au
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Mark Carter
Sent: Tuesday, 24 November 2009 1:55 PM
To:
Subject: Subject: [Birding-Aus] Re 'Jabiru'
I agree with Philip Veerman's post- the confusing 'Jabiru' is just the
tip of the iceberg when it comes to Australian bird common names. I
think settlers did Australian birds a great diservice when they set
about naming them after the vaguely similar species of elsewhere but it
was understandible. What I don't understand is the way 21st century
ornithology persists with these clumsy confusing labels. A Red-capped
Robin is not a robin in much the same way than a Koala bear is not a
bear. Mammologists have gotten over this dodgy inheritance years ago-
native cats are now almost universally renamed quolls, marsupial mice
are now dunnarts (or antichinus or psuedo antichinus or...) and
porcupines are now echidnas.
Australian birds such as shrike-thrushes, woodswallows, wrens, chats,
magpies, babblers and treecreepers are intrinsically awesome and don't
deserve to be encumbered by these clumsy, 2nd hand, confusing and often
dreadful misnomers (shrike-thrush particularly makes me cringe). These
is a vast and rich source of authentic names in the many Aboriginal
languages of our continent- is it outragous to suggest we consider this?
Mark Carter
Alice Springs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:15:24 +1100
From: "Philip Veerman" <>
Subject: Re 'Jabiru'
To: "'Tony Russell'" <>
Cc: "Birding-aus \(E-mail\)" <>
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Surely their proper name is the Australian Black Satin-necked non-jabiru
Stork. (joke)
Why doesn't some book author take the initiative to rename some bird
groups to simpler things, like rename the Cuckoo-shrikes as Cush e.g.
"Black-faced Cush" and likewise invent other new names, so we can
dispense with all those silly names like "Cuckoo-shrike" (not a joke).
After all, names are just labels, why not have distinctive ones that
don't give wrong impressions.
Philip Veerman
24 Castley Circuit
Kambah ACT 2902
02 - 62314041
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