3w ago

rule

27 comments

Ornithologists have two modes when naming things: blunt descriptive and horny
I like to imagine all birds were named by a single elderly couple, Evelyn and Wallace. Evelyn put a lot of thought and poetry into naming them, like the Nightingale, the Scarlet Tanager, the Indigo Bunting and the Cedar Waxing. Then we have Wallace. Wallace brought us the Blackbird, the Barn Owl, and the Woodpecker.
- which one named the tits?
  
  Both of them in unison, surely
its that joke about there being 4 kinds of names for birds:
God’s Specialest Little Boy
Horncocked Boobtit
Blue Bird With White Head
Jeremy’s Fingernail
- Ahh yes, this reminds me of my favorite bird, the Deepthroated Cockwomble.
- I'm not good with ornithology. Is the fourth one meant to signifiy there's a tendency in ornithology to name a bird after your own name and a body part ?
  
  not a body part specifically (that’s just what the original meme im shamelessly and badly stealing used), but yea there is a tendency to name birds So-and-so’s Something
The red-wing blackbird doesn't have red wing(s).
I rest my case
- It clearly has red on its wings.
  Yes it's orangish red, but have you ever heard of an animal called "Orange-something" no, because scientists can't see orange.
  
  Orange as a color is a fairly recent concept in the English language. Red hair is more orange than red too.
  
  My joke is that the wings aren't fully red.
  
  Orangeutan? (J/k if it isn’t obv)
  
  It could have been named before orange was.
At least it actually describes obvious features in language that is understandable in present-day English.
- Yea, it's probably better than "[random person]'s warbler"
Bird names are all either, "red-breasted blackbird," or, "deep-throated cum-tit." There's no in-between.
I'm just surprised it wasn't named after some private part that birds don't even have.
You could learn the binomial name: Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus
- Note: "xanthocephalus" is Greek for "yellow head".
- Xanthocephalus, from Greek Xanthous, meaning yellow, and cephalos, meaning head (compare with "cephalopod" meaning head-foot). That's right. The binomial name is also just "that thing with the yellow head"
- Mario Mario moment.
  
  gorilla gorilla gorilla 🦍
  
  My favorite binomial name is for the common black rat, whose binomial name is Rattus rattus. Shit sounds like someone making shit up on the spot without knowing how Latin works.
I would have called it a black bodied yellow bird.
- Billy Idol ass bird

27 comments