Pavouan(n)e … another hard-to-understand French name by Buffon … (1 Viewer)

Let´s take a look at another tricky Bird name, this time regarding the White-eyed Parakeet Aratinga leucophthalma STATIUS MÜLLER 1776… in French Conure (Perriche/Perruche) pavouane. And it is that pavouane I´m trying to understand!

This Parakeet was described by the great French ornithologist Buffon, in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux 1779, on pp. 255-257 (Attached). As usual for Buffon without any such Nonsense as binary names, linnean ideas or unnecessary Latin (French was good enough!) – as ”La Perriche pavouane”. His only motivation for the name (as far as I can tell) was the short sentence:

”Nos Oisseleurs ont adopté le nom de pavouane qu’elle porte à la Guyane.”

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Anyone feel like translating that short quote for me!? If so, please as accurate as possible, as I would like to quote it myself in Swedish. And don´t hesitate to remark on any errors that I might have done transcribing it.

And; does the rest of those Buffon pages tells us anything more regarding why he called it so?

The same species also got accounted for by Latham in 1781 as the "Pavouane Parrot" and (according to several sources) by Boddaert in 1783 as "Psittacus pavua". For the latter see link (here)!? Page 10.

In 1801 Buffons fellow countryman Levaillant even tried to establish the name "Ara Pavouanne” (with double-n, this time) for the same Parakeet, but it was never any success. Especially not after the ascertainment that the "pavouan(n)e" already got its current scientific name leucophthalma (as "Psittacus leucophthalmus") by Statius Müller in 1776. Chronological priority rule, and the " pavouane/pavouanne" simply disappeared from Scientific nomenclature, but managed to cling on, at least in its French Common name (… and in its Swedish aviary "Pet" name "pavuaparakit") .

Anyone know what that Pavouanne alt./or Pavua mean?

Dictionaries define "oiseleur" (one 's'!) as a bird catcher, but as here it seems to concern "oiseleurs" from France, I'd presume it rather means a bird keeper. (The odds of catching a conure in France in Buffon's times were probably quite low.) So this would mean:
He says nothing else about the name. Perhaps a native word, as in the case of marail?
(If formed within the French language, "pavouane" could conceivably mean something like "peacock-like", or "peacock-ish", but I have nothing to support this derivation.)


PS -

Calalp said:

In 1801 Buffons fellow countryman Levaillant even tried to establish the Scientific name "Ara Pavouanne” (with double-n, this time) for the same Parakeet, but it was never any success.

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Levaillant actually did not use Latin either. He called this bird "Perruche Ara Pavouane", in French only, and with only one n as Buffon. The spelling "Pavouanne" was attributed to him in several places, but this is a misquote.
Levaillant doesn't explain the name more than Buffon.

Amerindian languages

This attachment might help a bit. It gives the names of local birds in several languages. For instance we can see that the Marail Guan Penelope marail is called Malaï or Malay in Kali'na or Wayampi (French pronounciation close to marail). However Aratinga leucophthalmus is nothing close to pavouane.

Thanks Laurent!

l_raty said:

(If formed within the French language, "pavouane" could conceivably mean something like "peacock-like", or "peacock-ish", but I have nothing to support this derivation.)

PS -
Levaillant actually did not use Latin either. He called this bird "Perruche Ara Pavouane", in French only, and with only one n as Buffon. The spelling "Pavouanne" is attributed to Levaillant at several places, but this is a misquote.
Levaillant doesn't explain the name more than Buffon.

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As usual, you´re perfectly right! Levaillant did spell it the same way as Buffon. My mistake, not checking the original source. How many times have we warned for not doing that! Thanks for pointing it out! I sure wouldn´t like to spread any misquote further on.

Also compare to Jobling (2010), attached.

PS. Do you mean that a correct quoute of Buffon would look like ... ? :

"Nos Oiſeleurs ont adopté le nom de pavouane qu’elle porte à la Guyane."

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PPS. And Daniel. Even if that didn´t add much to the "pavouane"-question, it did make the entry on "Le Marail" even better! Thanks!

Calalp said:

Also compare to Jobling (2010)

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Peacock is "paon" in modern French, but this derives from Latin pavo (genitive pavonis; with pavus, genitive pavi, a variant). In Occitan (Provençal, Languedocien), it is "pavoun". "-an", feminine "-ane", is an adjectival suffix deriving from Latin -anus, -a, -um. But, again, any relation with the actual word "Pavouane" would need to be demonstrated.

Calalp said:

Do you mean that a correct quoute of Buffon would look like:

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Yes. (With or without the long ſ, depending on whether or not you want to take the risk to confuse your readers .) "Oiseleur" is "oiseau" (formerly "oisel", a bird) + suffix "-eur" (equivalent to the English suffix "-er"). Etymologically equivalent to "birder", thus.

... leading us to Linnaeus!?

Laurent, I´ll keep the quote that way, and will gladly take the risk of confusing my readers, as long as the quotation is true to the original (as far as Typefaces or Fonts allow us) – especially since I will translate it and try to explain the whole thing in Swedish.

But now I suddenly think this thread might be shifting focus a little, or at least it turns a slightly different way, being more of a concern for people interested in Synonymous Scientific (or Swedish Common Pet) names, as I think I´ve found yet another (all-over-present) misleading claim or misquotation: the one that it was Boddaert that coined the Scientific name "Psittacus pavua" in 1783. (Once again, stupidly alt. credulously, not checking it myself … until now!)

If we´re to trust the man himself, and the Boddaert, P. 1783. Table des planches enluminéez d'histoire naturelle de M. D'Aubenton : avec les denominations de M.M. de Buffon, Brisson, Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precedé d'une notice des principaux ouvrages zoologiques enluminés. (link to this volume Post #1) ... he was then only referring to the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus! See attached excerpt*.

Anyone know in which one, of all Linnaeus's works and in what year this "Psittacus pavua" appeared?

*Normally for Linnaeus not meaning page 45 in any "Gen." work, but "Genera 45" under Aves.

PS. I think it, quite obviously, could be that linnaean(!?) "pavua" that is the sole reason of the Swedish Common Pet name "pavuaparakit" (i. e. "Pavua Parakeet", to my knowledge never used in English). But we´re still on the same original path … probably, or at least most likely, linked to Buffon's "Pavouane", as Linnaeus quite often cited Buffon ... but who knows? The name, if not a local one, could, maybe, be linked to the greenish tone and the quite long-tailed look of this Parrot possibly making any aviculturist think of the original Pavo? But so far, that´s pure speculation, also this (if so) has to be demonstrated.

We´ll see …

PS. Disclaimer! There seem to be some confusion risk with "Conurus pavua (not Psittacus pavua Boddaert) Finsch, Die Papag., i, 1867". It´s mentioned in several articles ...

Calalp said:

If we´re to trust the man himself, and the Boddaert, P. 1783. Table des planches enluminéez d'histoire naturelle de M. D'Aubenton : avec les denominations de M.M. de Buffon, Brisson, Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precedé d'une notice des principaux ouvrages zoologiques enluminés. (link to this volume Post #1) ... he was then only referring to the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus! See attached excerpt*.

Anyone know in which one, of all Linnaeus's works and in what year this "Psittacus pavua" appeared?

*Normally for Linnaeus not meaning page 45 in any "Gen." work, but "Genera 45" under Aves.

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It seems that Boddaert is not the man we should trust, here, though. Linnaeus apparently never actually published it (note that the complete reference in Boddaert, 1783, somewhat intriguingly, says "LINN. Gen. 45. 0." = genus #45, species "#zero"...). Thus Boddaert, even if he attributed the name to Linnaeus, is deemed to be the author. See the Richmond Index card, for example.

(NB - The name is cited only as a synonym by Boddaert; but Sherborn indicates that it was adopted by Gray, 1845, which makes it available from Boddaert under Art.11.6.1 of the ICZN.)

No, Laurent, you´re the man to trust!

Ok, I guess I have to step down on this one, I went astray (again!?), got a bit wired up, thought I discovered an erroneous claim, overestimating myself (i. e. totally underestimating more than a Century of meticulous writers!?) … but there is (from what I can see) not a single trace (not even in Swedish texts) that Linnaeus ever wrote anything regarding a "Pavua Parakeet" or ever used the scientific name "Psittacus pavua".

I guess the main reason why it is called so among Bird Owners, in Swedish, is simply due to the "Conurus pavua" by Otto Finsch and his (among them) great work of reference: Die Papageien / monographisch bearbeitet … (1867-1868) … bouncing us back to the initial meaning of "Pavouanne".

We´re back on track! Once again thanks, and sorry for this de-tour!

PS. Here´s another version of Gray's Genera of Birds, vol II, this one from 1849, a bit more easy to flip through.

Calalp said:

1849, a bit more easy to flip through.

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Yes, same work, indeed, and actually also same edition. At some point in the past it used to be on Gallica but not on BHL--not so anymore, thus, good to know.

This is another one of these works that were published in parts, here between 1844 and 1849, and in an order that does not correspond to the order in the final book; the date on the title page is presumably the date of the last published part. I wrote 1845 because this is what Sherborn wrote; it could be wrong.

I have been away, so come to this thread belatedly. In my MS I have:
"pavua Cayenne Creole name Pavouane noble, for a type of parrot; ex “Perruche de la Guiane” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 167, and “Perriche Pavouane” of de Buffon 1770-1783 (syn. Psittacara leucophthalmus) ".

Welcome back James!

Do you know from where, in the wast Cayenne, that Creol pavua originates?

Laurent, neither can we trust Gray!?

At least not in full. The reference to Félix de Azara's "No.257" (as in Gray's Genera of Birds, vol II – links in both Post #7 and 8) was obviously another error! It ought to be the (other way around) = No.275 ("No. CCLXXV.") See Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale : depuis 1781 jusqu'en 1801 Vol 4. (But Otto Finsch got it right!)

Although Félix de Azara didn´t mention anything similar to either Pavua or Pavouanne. Bouncing us back to the start (and James's pavua)

The remaining question ...

Still no-one being able to trace, or pin-point, the origin of that pavua?

Closing time for this one as well ...

Time to push on ...

Thanks Laurent, Daniel and James!

I will settle for pavua, being an unspecified Cayenne Creole name ... of which origin I do not know for sure.

I can live with that. Especially since it´s an invalid one!

pavua ... over and out!

At last, I have come across my original reference. It is from, "A new and improved edition of Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets by François Le Vaillant 1753-1824 from the original two volumes in the collection of Lord McAlpine of West Green", [in English] editor Kerrie Leech, translated by Brigitte Pacula, commentary by Graeme Phipps (1989, Brian Chester Imprimé, Sydney), where I found; "The Noble Ara Parakeet ...Pavouane, local name meaning 'noble' in Guiana."