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From: dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: EXOTIC??? Starlings (Was OUTDOOR: Bird ID)
Message-ID: <62562@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 1 Mar 91 02:05:26 GMT
References: <21421@teda.UUCP> <4033.27ccf25e@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> <17382@milton.u.washington.edu>
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In article <17382@milton.u.washington.edu> gwynne@milton.u.washington.edu (Kristan Geissel) writes:
#In article <4033.27ccf25e@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu writes:

            [bird description deleted here]

#>Yep. Sounds like European Starlings to me; they can be surprisingly
#>beautiful in sunlight, all iridescent...but they are exotics, and
#>therefore difficult to find in the field guides sometimes. We had 
#>a flock of about 100 yesterday in our backyard, hopping and waddling
#>like a bunch of fat old men.
#>
#>Josh Hayes, Zoology, Miami U (Ohio)
#
#Exotic Starlings?  Are they that rare in the Midwest?  Here at the 
#Univ of Wash., our Physical Plant people have contest to see what
#the safest (no harm to starlings) and sanest (no harm to faculty,
#staff, students) way is to get these starlings OUT OF HERE.  ...

"Exotic" has a technical meaning in biology.  It means pretty much the
same as "introduced".  "Exotic" means from somewhere else.  Hence unusual,
difference.  Hence the everyday English meaning.

David Mark
dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu