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names

To: "" <>
Subject: names
From: michael hunter <>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 06:26:37 +0000
   Once again a few academics, mostly not Australian, if not Un-Australian, are 
foisting otherworldly names onto us Aussie birders.

  Common names , NOT ENGLISH names, for Australian birds are names commonly 
used by about 99% of Australian birdwatchers for our birds. It is appalling 
that colourless English names like Black-necked Stork have been inflicted on us 
by a few pseudo-academics who are presumably incapable of memorising Scientific 
names.  Jabiru may be the common name of a South American Stork, but changing 
the official “common” name for any birdwatcher witless enough to confuse the 
two in the field was an amazing arrogance. One justification was that people 
reading birdguides will be confused in not justified.  

   These people are meddling with our Australian common names, which are , or 
were, spontaneous non-scientific vernacular.
   Among many examples, “Jabiru” and “Torres Straits Pigeon” had romantic (in 
the broad sense folks) connotations lost in the bland generics we are told to 
use instead. As a youth my first sighting of the legendary Jabiru was very 
exciting, and stimulated a life-long interest in Birding.  Seeing a 
Black-necked Stork would not have.
    
  “Willy Fantail”   They must be joking.

         Resist.

                Michael

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