What's in a Name? (1 Viewer)

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 9, 2003

• #61

Hi Birdman,

From R Lancaster, Travels in China:
Père (Father) Jean Pierre Armand David, 1826-1900. French missionary & naturalist, went to China in 1862; travelled widely in north, central & west China, also Mongolia & Tibet. A tireless explorer and collector of zoological and botanical specimens including many new species.

Perhaps best known for saving the deer now named after him, Père David's Deer Elaphurus davidianus from extinction - he sent some back to Europe from the sole herd in the Chinese Imperial hunting grounds near Beijing; a few years later this herd was exterminated during the boxer rebellion and all now in existence are derived from the ones he sent to Europe.

Also well-known among botanists; plants named after him include Davidia involucrata (Dove Tree) and Pinus armandii (Chinese White Pine) and many others

Michael

 

birdman

Орнитол&

• Jul 9, 2003

• #62

Thanks Michael,

I knew there was something else name for/after/by him, but I couldn't remember what.

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 9, 2003

• #63

Hi Birdman,

I think he also 'discovered' (or more correctly, was the first westerner to see) the Giant Panda.

Michael

 

Lewis

Well-known member

• Jul 9, 2003

• #64

There is an extremely interesting and terribly written book called Pioneer Naturalists, The Discovery and Naming of North American Plants and Animals, written by Howard Ensign Evans, published by Henry Holt & Company in 1993. It describes the naturalists, collectors, railroad surveyors, army personnel, etc. - all the people roaming N.A. collecting and naming. Their histories, their work, their personalities and their connections with one and other are presented. One thing I never knew is that people never named discoveries after themselves. That simply was not done.

It's a great little sub-history of the settling of the States. If you don't stop and consider that the Cherokee, Sioux, Ohlone, etc etc etc., who together of course named and understood everything in their environment before the whites arrived with their guns and Taco Bells.

One excerpt:
"Communication in the nineteenth century being nothing like it is today, naturalists were sometimes unaware that someone else had already described a species or genus, resulting in the duplication of names. There was also a tendency to apply names to what were no more than unusual variatiants or local populations. C. Hart Merriam, for many years chief of the U.S. Biological Survey, described eight species of grizzly bears!"

 

R

rile's

Active member

• Jul 10, 2003

• #65

Interesting thread!!
Thanks for teaching me this stuff
I kind of like the names on both sides. How about we combine the English and American names into new bastardised muti-national super bird names....
They will sound quite powerfull and will take care of some of the imagination problems naturalsits seemed to have, from time to time, on both sides of the pond.
Her goes:
US name = UK name
Common Loon = Great Northern Diver
Arctic Loon = Black-throated Diver
Parasitic Jaeger = Arctic Skua
Common Murre = Common Guillemot
Thick-billed Murre = Brünnich's Guillemot
Bank Swallow = Sand Martin

Becomes,
Great Northern diving Loon
Arctic black-thoated Diver
Parasitic Jaeger Skua
Guillemot Mure
Brunchichs Thick Billed Guillemot
Martin Sparrow

 

Charles Harper

Régisseur

• Jul 10, 2003

• #66

I dunno, Rile...

... Snowy Kentish Plover, Common Moorhen Gallinule, Willow Grouse-Ptarmigan, Rough-legged Buzzard-Hawk...

... not much advantage in most of these hybrid names.

On the other hand, I do like 'Martin Swallow', but 'Sand Bank' would be catchier.

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 10, 2003

• #67

Perhaps the names could be composite, rather than added, so . . . .

Willow Ptarmouse
Common Moorinule
Great Common Loover
Arctic-throated Divoon
Sank Marlow or Band Swaltin
Thick Brünnich's Murrmot
Snotish Plover
Rough-legged Hazard

Naah, mebbe not after all

Michael

 

D

Darrell Clegg

Well-known member

• Jul 10, 2003

• #68

Is a hybrid Gyrfalcon + Merlin a Merger?

Darrell

 

robinm

Registered User

• Jul 10, 2003

• #69

It's a good job you can't cross a shrike with a twite

3 3 3

 

Charles Harper

Régisseur

• Jul 10, 2003

• #70

Yeh, and Parasitic Jua doesn't sound so good, either. But I like your idea, Michåel.

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 10, 2003

• #71

Hi Charles,

I thought it was going to be Arsitic Skueger . . .

Michael

 

S

simondix

Well-known member

• Jul 11, 2003

• #72

Going back to the beginning of the thread about God. I understand that god did help in making America. After forty days and nights on an ark with two of all the animals on board Noah had to clean it out and put the muck somewhere so they chucked it over board and there it stayed till Columbus discovered it.

 

dennis

Have binoculars. Will travel.

• Jul 11, 2003

• #73

Hmmm! American jokes again. I'm taking names.

dennis

 

S

simondix

Well-known member

• Jul 12, 2003

• #74

Sign of a great nation is if you can laugh at yourself. We British do nothing else.

Mind you we haven't got anything else to laugh about.

 

dennis

Have binoculars. Will travel.

• Jul 12, 2003

• #75

Just fooling around Simon. No offense taken.

Getting back on thread subject.... Give me a break with this name.

Superciliaried Hemispingus

What were they thinking?

 

Charles Harper

Régisseur

• Jul 13, 2003

• #76

He has an eyebrow and half a spingus?