Bird & Birding Humour

Discussions and information on all Southern African Birds
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Richprins
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Re: Proper Good Old Bird Names

Post by Richprins »

Dewi will be first up!..... :roll:


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Dewi
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Re: Proper Good Old Bird Names

Post by Dewi »

I don't mind being first up against the wall, but please read my last post, I was advocating for the old name there RP, or have you now swapped allegiances and have converted into the use of new names :twisted:


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Richprins
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Re: Proper Good Old Bird Names

Post by Richprins »

Never!

Welcome to the resistance, then!

(I thought you missspelled "Zitting"! :oops: )


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Bushveld Jock
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Re: Proper Good Old Bird Names

Post by Bushveld Jock »

Hi RP I am also against these new names, but being Afrikaans I always thought you need to translate the name and fell into the trap when writing my KTP TR.
Bushveld Jock wrote: Our morning drive was along the Auob river until Auchterlonie and back.

Spotted thick-knee

Image
In 2008 I found a nice fold up brochure with the list of animal and birds of the Kgalagadi printed by Game Park Publishing and use this guide for my TR. This is the first I saw there is a bird called a spotted thick-knee. So we all learn something everyday

So what about a Gompou then or is Kori Bustard OK?


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Richprins
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Re: Proper Good Old Bird Names

Post by Richprins »

Welcome here too, BJ!

Kori was probably a Frenchman, maybe Verreaux's son in law, so that name should be cast in stone... :roll:


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Richprins
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Striped Cuckoo

Post by Richprins »

While we're on the subject of French influence...

It is now Levaillant's Cuckoo. (Striped was not descriptive enough)

As far as I know the French did not discover Africa, but maybe I'm wrong.

So therefore this is their small way of catching up, so to speak... :roll:

Levaillant impregnated one of Verreaux's daughters, and the poor grandfather raised the child, hence the naming of the bird with the same habits...



Verreaux: "Who did zis dastardly deed!?"

Kori: "It was not me, mon ami!"

Verreaux: "Zen who was it!?"

Kori: "....I don't know, I am more into ze bustards!"

Verreaux: "Bastards iz exactly the problem we have here!"

Levaillant: "It was me, papa!"

Verreaux: "Verryeaux well...at least it iz French!"


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Dewi
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Re: Proper Good Old Bird Names

Post by Dewi »

Hmmmm? I'm thinking you may not be taking this too seriously RP?

Kori was not French as you may believe. Kori comes from the Tswana name for this bird - Kgori. First described and named scientifically by William John Burchell, an English naturalist who explored the Cape (arriving there in 1810). You will recognise Burchell's name from Burchell's Zebra, Coucal and Starling, which were named after him.

The Afrikaans name of Gompou (rubber peacock) is thought to be derived from the birds habit of eating the sap of Acacia trees.

Francois Levaillant was indeed of French parentage, but was born in the then Dutch Guiana (Surinam). He explored Southern Africa, discovered Klaa's Cuckoo (named after one of his servants) amongst other discoveries.......

Oops, :oops: now I've gone the complete opposite of RP's post, I need to find some homourous anecdotes from somewhere. -O


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Richprins
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Re: Proper Good Old Bird Names

Post by Richprins »

Dewi wrote: The famous French Explorer/naturalist, Pierre Antoine Delalande, had an expedition to Southern Africa, arriving at the Cape in November 1818.
Another suspect! Obviously sent to check up on Burchell!

(After not having anything named after him, and losing the Six-Nations 3-0, so to speak! :roll: )


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Richprins
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Re: Proper Good Old Bird Names

Post by Richprins »

Intrepid traveller, pioneering naturalist, famous author, François Levaillant (1753-1824) was a celebrity in his own lifetime. The colourful accounts of his travels in southern Africa in the 1780s were widely read in seven languages. His sumptuous bird books, published in a golden age of natural history book production led by the French, recorded for posterity his extensive bird collections.

Yet he has often been dismissed as a flamboyant Gallic adventurer with a cavalier attitude to the truth.


So there!


Image



Make up your own minds! :roll:


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Re: Striped Cuckoo

Post by Wild Dreamer »

Richprins wrote:While we're on the subject of French influence...

It is now Levaillant's Cuckoo. (Striped was not descriptive enough)

As far as I know the French did not discover Africa, but maybe I'm wrong.

So therefore this is their small way of catching up, so to speak... :roll:

Levaillant impregnated one of Verreaux's daughters, and the poor grandfather raised the child, hence the naming of the bird with the same habits...



Verreaux: "Who did zis dastardly deed!?"

Kori: "It was not me, mon ami!"

Verreaux: "Zen who was it!?"

Kori: "....I don't know, I am more into ze bustards!"

Verreaux: "Bastards iz exactly the problem we have here!"

Levaillant: "It was me, papa!"

Verreaux: "Verryeaux well...at least it iz French!"
There is one single person in this world I know who can work up a hilarious conversation like this!
-O -O -O -O -O


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