Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!mephisto!prism!fsu!loligo!sandee From: sandee@loligo (Daan Sandee) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Latin names (was: Birding Magazines) Message-ID: <428@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Date: 10 Jan 90 18:37:06 GMT References: <2359@leah.Albany.Edu> <425@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Sender: news@fsu.scri.fsu.edu Reply-To: sandee@sun6.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee) Organization: Florida State University Lines: 90 In article misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) writes: >In article <425@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> sandee@loligo (Daan Sandee) writes: >> About Latin names : you must realize that (a) Birder's World is aimed at >> the large group of Sunday birdwatchers, rather than the hardcore birders, > >True, but Birder's World also features articles about foreign countries, >where birds often have several different names, and if you intend to travel True (also the rest of the paragraph, which I have deleted to save postage). I have an anecdote about Latin names. An article in a major Dutch newspaper about 10 years ago. A Dutch birder had occasion to visit Moscow for some scientific conference (unconnected with birds). She tried hard to arrange a birding trip through the hosting organization, but nothing happened. Remember, at that time all activities by foreigners had to have official approval. Finally some interpreter mentioned a cousin whose husband was a field ornithologist, and brought them into contact. They went on a birding trip somewhere near (it was in Spring), and had a great time. There was just one problem : the ornithologist spoke only Russian, the cousin little more and didn't know anything about birds, and the interpreter wasn't going to risk her job and come along on an unapproved expedition. But they managed, using Latin names ! She said it was great to hear Turdus iliacus sing (in Holland, they're winter visitors). Maybe sometime I'll get a chance myself. I'm sure they sing in Finland as well. > >> It is easy to treat North America as a closed region, ornithologically, >> and virtually everybody speaks English (I pity the Quebecois who are >> forced to use a foreign language to get around in birding). >Well, there are Spanish-speaking people too, they don't neccessarily learn >the English names first. After birding all over this country for four years, I have yet to meet one true Hispanic (meaning Spanish-speaking) birder. If you read AB, you will see many contributors with Spanish names : I'm sure all those have English as their mother tongue. The millions of Spanish-speaking Americans don't bird, apparently. Although the areas they live in are among the most inter- esting in this country, birdwise. Quebec is another matter. Although they no doubt lack the birdwatching tradition of the English-speaking peoples, they do watch birds, and publish about it (in French), and contribute to AB (in English). They have a rare- bird-alert hotline in French, so they must have standardized French names for most North American birds (after all, the hotline mostly is for reporting non-local birds). > >> I know that in Britain, the BOU does more or less >> the same job of taxonomy and nomenclature that the AOU does for North >> America. But does anybody know if there is a European body or organiz- >> ation trying to establish a standard West Palaearctic taxonomy ? >I don't know if such a body exists. Maybe the International Rarities Committee, >or whatever the name is, could handle it. The Latin names should be standard >worldwide of course, so that's quite a project. I meant taxonomy, not records keeping. Although the latter subject also would profit by European-wide co-ordination. > .... stuff deleted ... subject changes to Finnish birding .... >> As to getting a broader public interested in birdwatching : one place to >> start would be in the conservationist movement. Surely in Finland there >There are conservation bodies, of course, but none for birds exclusively. Sure, that was your original complaint ! But they reach the biggest group of people interested in preservation and presumably in nature in general. > >There is the Association of Birding Societys which assists the ministry, >but they have very little money and only 3 employees. You are a member >of this society if you are a member of any birding society in Finland ... so you don't have to get them interested ; they already are. Although you could start a discussion in those journals and try and find somebody to publish in the preservation society's journal. > >There are two birders in Holland who have been trying to establish (since >autumn -88) a Euro Bird Net where we exchange information Why aren't these people on this newsgroup ? Surely if they know about computer networking ... Can you tell me how to contact them ? I have an Email birding contact in Holland and she never mentioned Euro BirdNet. > >I have a sister who is studying at the university in Tallahassee, she's >not into birds however. I visited Tallahassee, and the university, on >a birding trip in March -89. Pity I did not know about you then. It's mutual - the regret, I mean. I hope you did some birding while you were here. March is a great time (although April is better). I saw a Fulvous Whistling Duck (or Whistling-Duck, as the AOU would have me spell it) in March 89. > >Annika Forsten, Abo Akademi, Finland misan@ra.abo.fi We can continue by Email to save net bandwidth, if nobody else wants to take part (in the original discussion about Latin names, for instance). Daan Sandee sandee@sun6.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute (IP: 128.186.2.102) Florida State University sandee@fsu.bitnet Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 (904) 644-7045 sandee@fsu.mfenet