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Path: utzoo!snell
From: snell@utzoo.UUCP (Richard Snell)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,rec.birds
Subject: buzzards vs. vultures: there is a difference 
Message-ID: <8198@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Jun-87 11:14:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.8198
Posted: Wed Jun 24 11:14:57 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Jun-87 11:14:57 EDT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 31


In article <773@gryphon.CTS.COM> mhnadel@gryphon.CTS.COM (Miriam Nadel) writes

>One of the less enlightened people I work with believes that buzzards and
>vultures are completely distinct types of birds.  Please can someone settle
>an argument and provide us with lots of nice latin names since the dictionary
>doesn't?
>
>Miriam Nadel

The reason your dictionary does not provides "lots of nice Latin" is 
because it is of low quality.  If you choose to look in the entries for
either `buzzard' or `vulture' in a _real_ dictionary, such as the O.E.D.,
you will find excellent etymologies, which include the Latin roots.

Etymologies of some bird names are given in the paperback "The dictionary
of American bird names, revised edition, 1985, E.A. Choate, The Harvard
Common Press."

  "Buzzard. L. _buteo_ through F. _busard_.  In Britain a common name for
   the large soaring hawks. The early colonists coming from a country devoid
   of vultures bestowed the name on the large soaring American vultures,
   giving us Turkey Buzzard, Black Buzzard and even Mexican Buzzard for the
   Caracara." (From Choate, p. 9.)

Too bad, but your "less enlightened" co-worker is correct.
__
Name:   Richard Snell
Mail:   Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto
        Toronto, Ontario, Canada    M5S 1A1
UUCP:   {allegra,decvax,ihnp4,linus,pyramid,yetti}!utzoo!snell