Balearica (2 Viewers)

[stevethehydra]

I don't normally venture into this forum but... as I may be going to Mallorca this year, I was looking up wildlife and places of interest there, and then suddenly wondered - why are the crowned cranes called Balearica???

Both species are exclusively found in sub-Saharan Africa, there seems to be no evidence that they were ever present on any Mediterranean islands, but Wikipedia says the genus name comes from that of the islands, and it seems that the original etymology of "balearic" is disputed between Greek and Phoenician roots, with a few folk etymologies, but basically has only ever been a toponym for that group of islands.

So is there a story involving mistaken identity, or what?

 

[Xenospiza]

I don't normally venture into this forum but... as I may be going to Mallorca this year, I was looking up wildlife and places of interest there, and then suddenly wondered - why are the crowned cranes called Balearica???

Both species are exclusively found in sub-Saharan Africa, there seems to be no evidence that they were ever present on any Mediterranean islands, but Wikipedia says the genus name comes from that of the islands, and it seems that the original etymology of "balearic" is disputed between Greek and Phoenician roots, with a few folk etymologies, but basically has only ever been a toponym for that group of islands.

So is there a story involving mistaken identity, or what?

Yes, they were thought to occur in the Balearic islands. Brisson wrote in 1760 "On le trouve en Afrique et dans les Isles Baléares."
This was based on older work, e.g. by Aldrovandi (1599): Ulisse Aldrovandi – Crowned Heron Bird: Ein handkolorierter Stich von Aldrovandi aus dem 16. und 17. Jahrhundert im Angebot bei 1stDibs

 

[Jacana]

From the BirdsoftheWorld website:

L. grui Balearicae Balearic crane with a tufted head mentioned by Pliny. It is not known to which species Pliny referred, or even if it was a type of crane, although the Demoiselle Crane Anthropoides formerly occurred in Spain, and still migrates through the Nile valley, and it is possible that the Black Crowned Crane bred in the Nile delta or the marshes of Tunisia in classical times. Ulysses Aldrovandus 1599, gave the name grus Balearica to the latter sp., translated by Willughby 1676, as the ‘Balearic Crane’; "Rostro brevi, recto; apice conico: capite ornato corolla plumis, Graminis radicum æmulis, conflata. . . .Balearica. Genus 84. ... La tête ornée d'une hupe composée de plumes ressemblantes à des racines de Chiendent. **1. L'OISEAU-ROYAL. ... BALEARICA." (Brisson 1760): based on "Grus Balearica" of Aldrovandus 1599-1603, Ardea pavonina Linnaeus, 1758, and many other references; "Balearica Brisson, 1760, Ornithologie, I, p. 48: V, p. 511. Type, by monotypy, "Balearica" Brisson = Ardea pavonina Linnaeus, 1758." (JAJ 2023).
Synon. Balearius.

 

[Taphrospilus]

Both references from Brisson:
Ornithologia sive synopsis methodica sistens avium divisionem in ordines, sectiones, genera, species, ipsarumque varietates. Cum accurata cujusque speciei descriptione, citationibus auctorum de iis tractantium, nominibus eis ab ipsis & nationibus impositis, nominibusque vulgaribus (unfortunatelly scaned wrong)
or t.1 (1760) - Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés - Biodiversity Heritage Library

Ornithologia Sive Synopsis Methodica

books.google.de

or t.5 (1760) - Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés - Biodiversity Heritage Library