The Experience of Birding
But at least she has those two beautiful birds named in her honor, right? Well, not exactly. The dazzling pompadour green pigeons, now considered a complex of half a dozen similar and closely related species, were named in 1776 by the English naturalist and painter Peter Brown. Why would an Englishman name a Sri Lankan pigeon for …
Continue reading “Poor Pompadour, 2”
Poor Mme de Pompadour. I suppose it’s one of the occupational hazards when you are official mistress to the king, but not everybody at the court of Louis XV seems to have liked her. Even the king found her difficult at times. I really want to please Louis, but alas, sometimes he thinks I’m a …
Continue reading “Poor Pompadour”
It is safe to say that never in the history of systematic ornithology has there been so much talk about English names as now. And rightly so: the stakes are higher and our responsibilities graver today than ever before. Words matter, names matter, and there should be nothing easier in the difficult matter of inclusivity …
Continue reading “Patronymic Naming, ca. 1807”
After all that, Prince Maximilian and his companions were mighty glad to be on terra firma again, and they spent the next nearly two years exploring the wildernesses of Brazil. Thanks largely to the expatriate ornithologist Georg Wilhelm Freyreiss, Maximilian was able to record something along the lines of 400 bird species — as then understood — …
Continue reading “Max’s Musical Jungle Thrush”