janvanderbrugge
Well-known member
Those were the days, my friends . . .
Allow me to share with you the memory of an earlier "melba" discussion. In "A Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names" of 1991, James Jobling (living in Welwyn Garden City, then, beautiful name by the way!) wrote about melba: "No expl. According to Albertus Magnus melba is an old German name for a gull Larus [. . .] relevance of the name to the Melba Finch Pytilia is unclear." Afterwards there were contacts with Klaas Eigenhuis. I had frequent correspondence with Klaas and of course the name melba was discussed. Klaas (never limited in his linguistic activities to the Dutch names of birds and their origin) had the suggestion of the colours melas + albus, and I gave the comment that apart from an improbable combination of Greek and Latin in one term, Linnaeus apparently was never fanciful in coining scientific names. Such combinations did not or hardly appear before Bonaparte's days and his Conspectus, in my view, and also then there was ample resistance among his contemporary authors (although Bonaparte himself was also criticizing some names, and Cabanis was a real linguistic purist of the sixties, i.e. the 1860s). The international discussion of Klaas Eigenhuis et al. (incl. myself) and James led to the formulation as it is given in the HBW Alive Key. Eigenhuis died last year, so his version in the "Verklarend en etymologisch woordenboek" (Roek's quote above) will stand as it is as well. Of course, until the BF subforum members will succeed in submitting some acceptable alternative for the question marks, but a revision of that Dutch standard dictionary of bird names is not to be expected. Anyway, the hobby of etymological nomenclature is not fading.
Jan van der Brugge
Allow me to share with you the memory of an earlier "melba" discussion. In "A Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names" of 1991, James Jobling (living in Welwyn Garden City, then, beautiful name by the way!) wrote about melba: "No expl. According to Albertus Magnus melba is an old German name for a gull Larus [. . .] relevance of the name to the Melba Finch Pytilia is unclear." Afterwards there were contacts with Klaas Eigenhuis. I had frequent correspondence with Klaas and of course the name melba was discussed. Klaas (never limited in his linguistic activities to the Dutch names of birds and their origin) had the suggestion of the colours melas + albus, and I gave the comment that apart from an improbable combination of Greek and Latin in one term, Linnaeus apparently was never fanciful in coining scientific names. Such combinations did not or hardly appear before Bonaparte's days and his Conspectus, in my view, and also then there was ample resistance among his contemporary authors (although Bonaparte himself was also criticizing some names, and Cabanis was a real linguistic purist of the sixties, i.e. the 1860s). The international discussion of Klaas Eigenhuis et al. (incl. myself) and James led to the formulation as it is given in the HBW Alive Key. Eigenhuis died last year, so his version in the "Verklarend en etymologisch woordenboek" (Roek's quote above) will stand as it is as well. Of course, until the BF subforum members will succeed in submitting some acceptable alternative for the question marks, but a revision of that Dutch standard dictionary of bird names is not to be expected. Anyway, the hobby of etymological nomenclature is not fading.
Jan van der Brugge
