SHOULD naming rights to endangered bird species be offered to businesses in return for cash to help fund their survival?
When the idea was first floated a few years ago in the magazine, Birdwatch, twitchers came up with various lighthearted suggestions.
They included Kellogs corncrakes, Gillette razorbill, Johnsons waxwing, Dulux roller, Burger king eider, Playtex booby and, less tastefully, Durex shag.
The initiative flopped, but now the idea has been given fresh wings by former BBC TV producer and author Stephen Moss in his latest book, Mrs Moreau's Warbler - How Birds Got Their Names.
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| Stephen Moss - authoritative and entertaining |
"In exchange, they could have a bird named - or renamed - after them."
Moss acknowleges a potential downside - that of multinational companies seeking to 'greenwash' their misdeeds by 'appearing' to care about conservation.
But he notes that a precedent has already been set - for instance, the scientific name for a recently-discovered Peruvian species, the choco vireo, is Vireo masteri after Ohio birder and retired doctor Dr Bernard Master whose aim is to see every one of the world's birds.
The naming rights came after bidding reached some £50,000-plus at an auction.
Despite its somewhat clunky title, Moss has written an authoritative and highly entertaining book - one full of insights.
For instance, 'finch' derives from the Old English 'finc' after the callnote of the chaffinch.
He notes that there are regional variations in the song of this species which is known in Dundee as the 'ginger beer bird' because it is by sounding the name of the drink that the song seems to conclude.
The author acknowledges the importance, in the late 14th Century, of Geoffrey Chaucer not just as a poet but as an ornithologist who knew the names of at least 40 of the 100 or so species
known in Britain at that time.
Many birds are named after the colour of their plumage, or parts of it, and the author is amused by reddish egret, yellowish flycatcher and greenish warbler.
Quoting fellow-author and ornithithologist Jeremy Mynott, he says these titles carry "a nice note of ruminative hesitation".
Another name to come under Moss' scrutiny is that of a group of seaducks, the scoter family.
The author goes with the theory that the name might once have been 'sooter' because of the
predominantly black plumage.
The author reveals his fondness for the 19th Century poet. John Clare, who later came to be
described by broadcaster James Fisher as "the finest poet of Britain's minor naturalists and the finest naturalist of Britain's major poets"
When he was studying English Literature at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in the early
1980s, Moss wrote a dissertation (unpublished) on the verse structure of Clare's bird poems
noting how their structure and rhythms "somehow seemed to mimic the movements and
behaviour of the bird itself".
Iincidentally, Clare would sometimes refer to the blackcap as the 'March nightingale' on account
both of its early return to Britain from its winter home and its richly melodious song.
Somewhat like a mystery thriller, Moss has cleverly topped and tail his narrative with a quest - not just to establish how Mrs Moreau's warbler came to be named but also actually to see what is an extremely rare species.
In conclusion, a word or two for the appendix which sets out different categories of bird names.
'Positive and upbeat' examples bird include: gorgeous bushshrike, magificent antbird, qand marvellous spatuletail, while downbeat ones include sombre tit and sad flycatcher.
Species with the shortest name is ou while the longest (31 letters) is Prigogine's double-collared sunbird.
A bird named after a US states is Florida scrub jay, while those named after gems include
amethyst sunbird and , emerald cuckoo.
Then there are the birds with religious names - cardinals, friarbirds, and bishops
Moss has even found a few names which he reckons might now be deemed politically incorrect - negrofinch, dwarf bittern, hottentot teal, midget flowerpecke and pygmy falcon.
Finally, he lists some names which are real zingers - the likes of scaly-throated leaftosser, shining sunbeam, teardrop white-eye and some 30 more.
Fascinating stuff!
Mrs Moreau's Warbler is published at £16.99 by Guardian Faber and is available wherever books are sold.
