Sparrowhawk

Sparrowhawk

Accipiter nisus

Matthurin Jacques Brisson 1760

 

Back to ancient Greece, for our ongoing investigation into the etymology behind the classical scientific names of our British fauna - and in this case, a slight misnomer perhaps?

The sparrowhawk is now one of our most familiar of raptors - regularly dashing through gardens all over the UK in ambush pursuit of the songbirds* we so like to feed.
It hasn't always been this way however - this hawk, like so many other birds of prey was (and still is, sometimes) shot to protect estate game birds.

The sparrowhawk is an incredibly beautiful bird of prey and is sexually dimorphic (the female is large and brown with fierce yellow eyes - the male is much smaller, with a gun metal blue-grey back, bright orange eyes and a wonderful orange barred breast).

Because of the difference in sizes between the male and female - they tend to take different types of prey - the males taking smaller passerines (tit to blackbird size) whereas the far more powerful hen can take birds up to the size of pigeons, doves, corvids... even the odd pheasant poult if pressed).

Both sexes kill with stealth, surprise and suddenly.....AMBUSH. Generally if they hit their target, the avian victim is knocked dead by the force of the impact, but if not, the hawk will attempt to pluck its prey whilst still alive.

*The sparrowhawk is oft-blamed for the "decline in songbirds" (that phrase is often vomited up by persons with a hidden agenda generally), often by the bizarre organisation name of "Songbird survival" (members of the shooting fraternity that tend to ignore science, reason, logic, common sense and avoid any sort of intelligent reasoning it seems to me - in their pursuit to raise (and then kill) their millions of pheasants and also shoot anything else that could potentially get in the way).
"Saving songbirds with science" is their mantra - though their "science" is not any type of science I recognise.
I'll not give "Songbird survival" any more time on this particular blog, but I will say that in general, "songbirds" are not declining at all - quite the reverse in fact - let alone declining at the feet of hawks or cats or anything else. But that's a whole different story.

Annnnywaaay...
The sparrowhawk's vernacular name stems from the old English spearhafoc and Middle English sperhauk - both meaning hawk which takes sparrows - apt enough - at least for the male bird.

But what does its scientific name Accipiter nisus mean?

Linnaeus, in 1758 originally classified the sparrowhawk as Falco nisus, but it took Brisson to classify it not as a falcon but a true Accipiter, two years later.

The generic (and family) name of Accipiter stems from the Latin accipere (verb) and Late Latin verb capere: "to receive" or "take hold (of)", "grasp" or even "accept" if you like.

The sparrowhawk's specific name of nisus is where waters start to get murky....
What does nisus mean or who was Nisus?

This is where we delve into our Ancient Greek myths again - I'll try and explain who Nisus was and endeavour to keep this as brief as I can.... not easy in this case.

King Nisos was a mythical King of Ancient Megara, Greece - one of the four sons of Pandion II (I'll deal with Pandion when I get 'round to discussing the scientific name for the Osprey).
Nisos' kingdom of Megara was besieged by King Minos of Crete (of Minotaur and maze fame).
Minos couldn't break Nisos and his kingdom though - not whilst Nisos had his magic lock of purple or golden hair in place (which granted him immortality and invincibility).

During the siege, Nisos' daughter, Scylla, fell in love with the handsome foreigner King Minos - and one night, snuck into her father's bedchamber to cut off his purple or golden lock of invincibility.
Scylla presented her father's hair to Minos (expecting to be congratulated and loved back) but King Minos was not impressed  - he wanted to claim Megara by fair means and not by treachery.

It mattered not to Nisos - he was suddenly mortal and his kingdom fell to Minos.
Nisos was slain.
Upon his death, he allegedly turned into a sea eagle or osprey.

Nisos' traitor daughter was rejected by King Minos again, as his fleet set sail after defeating Nisos and his kingdom - but she clung onto the stern of Minos' boat in the vain hope he would forgive her and take her with him.
Minos rejected that notion and told his sailors to leave her there in the wake, and if she was still there when they reached Crete, he would feed her to the dogs.

Meanwhile....Nisos, in the form of an osprey or sea eagle was chasing Minos' ship - to take furious revenge on his deceitful daughter, Scylla.
Scylla soon drowned in the wake of Minos' ship -and was transformed into an unspecified water bird name of Ciris - perhaps a heron (or even a fish), classical scholars speculate.
But that didn't stop her father, as osprey or sea eagle, pursuing her - for all eternity.
Scylla, the heron or fish being pursued by Nisos in osprey or sea eagle form.

Much of the ancient world believed animals (birds included) to have been once human - but changed into animal (bird) form for all eternity - and the stories behind these humans explained the specific behaviour of the animals in question.

That said, various scholars (such as Sieke in his 1884-penned "De Niso et Scylla in a y es mutatis" for example) suggest that this story was a metaphor for the relationship between the sun and the moon in the sky (the golden or purple lock of Nisos' hair is the sun and Scylla is the moon) - there do seem to be similar examples of this ancient story-telling all over ancient Europe.


Hmmmm.

So Nisus (or Nisos) was a mythological Greek king, who turned into a sea eagle or osprey after his (human) death - to chase his deceitful daughter Scylla, who had turned into a heron (or a fish) for all eternity.

So why name a sparrowhawk (hardly a sea eagle or an osprey after all?) after King Nisos then?

To be honest, your guess is probably as good as (or even better than) mine.

One or more or four things seem to have occurred here....

1 - Linnaeus (the original sinner when it comes to coining the species nisus) was running out of Greek myths (when classifying birds) which involved Apollo's messenger, Circe, or the hawk - so any raptor myth would do for the sparrowhawk wouldn't it?

2 - The male sparrowhawk does have somewhat purple-coloured plumage - was Linnaeus nodding to the purple lock of Nisos when classifying the sparrowhawk as nisus? Perhaps.

3 - Linnaeus just made an error. Nisos was turned into an Osprey or sea eagle - and yet Linnaeus named the Osprey not after Nisos, but after Nisos' father, Pandion II instead.
He should have named the Osprey nisus (not Pandion), and named the sparrowhawk after something very different....

4 - The actual original myth of Nisos, Scylla and Minos has been lost over the passage of time.


Oops.
I've done it again and waffled on like a right one.

I'll end it here, with the summary that the European sparrowhawk has a scientific name, which unfortunately means:

 

"Grasping Sea-eagle - bird form of (mythological) King Nisos".

Not the best of your work Linnaeus.
Not unless you were  actually doffing your zoologist's  and classical cap to the fact that the male sparrowhawk does look a bit purple - like Nisos' power lock.
I'd appreciate the romantic poetry of that, for sure.
But I'm far from convinced you did actually mean that.

Nope.Not one of your better days me old son.

Honey buzzard

Honey buzzard

Pernis apivorus

Linnaeus, 1758

 

The honey buzzard is a large, sexually dimorphic (male and female distinguishable) bird of prey that is actually more closely related to the cuckoo hawks, bazas and some kite species than the true buzzards of the Buteo genus. All of the above (bar Buteo) belong to the Perninae subfamily of the avian Accipitridae family.

The honey buzzard is so-named in the English-speaking world because it likes to eat wasp grubs (and bees also occasionally) - so might appear to be eating honey when it chows down on its favourite scran I guess.

There are a few breeding pairs in the UK each year, a few dozen at most - and each time Anna and I are in the New Forest, I keep my peepers peeled for this fantastic bird.

You see. They're not buzzards. They're not kites. They're not really hawks.

I think I like to think of them as "crested kite-hawks"... but then again I always like to march to a different beat...

They were once referred to as "perns" - indeed Aristotle and Hesychius both referred to a (particular (unspecified)) bird of prey as Pernes - and that of course would explain their generic and sub-family name.

So where does Pern(e), or Pernes/Pernis or Perninae stem from?

Pernis seems to go hand in hand with the Latin Pernix : "Persistent", "striving", "swift" and one could reasonably assume this was a rather apt name for the warm clime-favouring honey buzzards, with their nimble beak, long neck and unorthodox eating habit.

I guess the most famous modern use of the classical "perne" was at the pen of poet W.B. Yeats in his "Sailing to Byzantium" work, (third stanza typed below)



"O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity".


Most experts have oft-suggested that Yeats meant a bobbin ("perne") in a spin ("gyre") in the line above (utter tosh I think), but a few others are of the opinion that the old boy's (he was 61 when he penned the above) poem was full of references to classical nay mythical birds and esoteria.
I happen to agree - "perne in a gyre" to me means a honey buzzard in a spiralling flame-like flight (maybe even a thermal - honey buzzards love thermals) or even more plausible in terms of the poem's constant theme - a phoenix.
That sort of mystical imagery was right up Yeats' weird street.

It matters not I guess - we've dealt with Pernis long enough and I'm waffling  again.


What about the honey buzzard's specific name of apivorus?

A little easier this - from Latin Apis ("bee") and vorare ("to devour").
Do honey buzzards devour bees then?
Well... yes....  as I mentioned at the top of this blog post - occasionally.

They possess a chemical deterrent in their feathers which dissuades bees and wasps from stinging them and have a far more feathery face than other raptors, especially between beak and eye - so even if they are stung, it's a job for said stinging insect to push its sting through all those feathers.
That said, wasps, indeed hornets (not bees) generally form FAR more of a honey buzzard's diet, so a better specific name for this bird might have been vespa (wasp in Latin) vorus.

Right. That's enough.

The honey buzzard (or as you now should know it! - the "wasp-pern") has a scientific name which literally means:

"striving, nimble bird of prey that devours bees".

Rough-legged buzzard

Rough-legged buzzard

Buteo lagopus

Pontoppidan, 1763

 

With “Zoonames” I am attempting to create a little on-line reference site for anyone vaguely interested in the etymology behind certain British animals’ classical scientific names. Firstly British birds, then British moths and butterflies and from there who knows.

With that in mind, it might seem odd that I am now about to discuss the rough-legged buzzard – a raptor which most people won’t even see in the UK – and even if they did, they almost certainly wouldn’t appreciate the fact that it was a “rough-legged” buzzard and not a “common” buzzard.

This is primarily because I do appreciate the scientific name of the rough-legged buzzard and will return to both its generic and specific name a number of times in the "zoonames" odyssey.

Like most buzzards, (or hawks as our friends in "the states" call them), the rough-legged buzzards is a robust raptor with broad wings and a relatively short tail.

It can be distinguished from our "common buzzard" in that whilst like the common buzzard it has very variable plumage ("morphs") almost all rough-legs have a noticeable chestnut band on their pale(ish) front, all exhibit feathered legs to their toes, (unlike the common buzzards) and most hover regularly (proper hovering like a kestrel or an osprey - whereas common buzzards can hover but mostly choose not to).

Rough legs are rare winter visitors to the UK, primarily on the east of the country, as they migrate south from their breeding grounds in the tundra to warmer climes for the winter.

The English word "buzzard" is derived from the old French "Buisard", a derivative of "Buison" which itself has its roots in the Latin Buteo, meaning hawk or falcon (or buzzard).

You can see that in order to be true to its origin, we should really pronounce the rough-legged buzzard the rough-legged "bweezurd" or "boozurd", but let's not go there.

That covers Buteo - but what about lagopus?

Lago although meaning "lake" in contemporary Italian, Portugese and Spanish meant "hare" in classical Greek.

All hares, rabbits and pikas belong to the classical order "Lagomorpha" (hare-shape or form).

The rough-legged buzzard nods to the hare in its scientific name, purely because it has feathery legs as an adaptation to its tundra habitat (which I guess reminded early zoologists of the furry legs of a hare).

Now.

Talking of lago...

Everyone knows "Lego", right?

If you were ever to build a rabbit or hare (or pika I suppose) from "Lego" - you would indeed have built yourself a "Lego lago".

Some of you will have kids or long enough memories to know or remember "Duplo" - the company which makes large lego bricks.

Duplo has a rabbit as its logo.

Can you see where I'm going with this yet?

SOoooo.... Duplo does indeed have a "Lago lego logo".

 

Pus has its origins in classical Greek also  - stemming from pous, meaning "foot".

I think we're finally there.

The rough-legged buzzard has a scientific name which literally means:

"hare-footed hawk", or for me at least, the "harey-footed hawk"

Marsh harrier

Marsh Harrier
Circus aeruginosus
Linnaeus, 1758

The marsh harrier is our largest harrier and these days, our most numerous (though far from common at a few hundred breeding pairs generally). They’re bulkier than the hen harrier, lack a white rump and the females have a distinct creamy coppery head on a milk chocolate brown body. They’re primarily found in the east of the UK, over reedbeds and marshes.

I’ve dealt with the marsh harrier’s smaller, rarer, blue-grey cousin in the previous blog post, so there’s no need to repeat the mythological Greek stem of the marsh harrier’s generic name of Circus. Click here to read why all harriers are “Circus birds”.

As for the marsh harrier’s specific name, aeruginosus – this has  its roots in Latin, not Greek.

Scholars will tell you that the marsh harrier’s specific name of aeruginosus is derived from the Latin aerugo meaning copper rust and osus meaning full of (full of copper rust).

At first glance, that might seem like quite a reasonable or apt specific name for a large harrier covered in patches of copper-coloured feathers.

But copper rust is blue-green!

Think the statue of liberty if you want to know the colour of copper rust.

There are two other organisms I know of with a specific name of aeroginosus:

The bacterium Bacillus aeroginosus and the fungus Gymnophilus aeroginosus  - both exhibiting a blue-green colour.

Now there’s nothing blue-green about a marsh harrier.

Or is there?

Well…. the marsh harrier’s eggs are a very pale (indeed) blue-green colour, (more so than the more white eggs of the hen harrier), so I guess this may be why the bird has a specific name of “full of copper rust”.

The adult birds certainly are “coppery” and one could reasonably assume that 250 years ago, when these birds were classified, zoologists looked at the copper-flecked adults with their very pale blue-green eggs and thought of copper rust.

“Dulux” might have had this egg colour branded as “white with a hint of aerugo” (rather than full of “aerugo” as aeruginosus actually means), but hey ho.

The above is pure speculation and assumption – the most speculation and assumption I’ve had to make in this scientific nomenclature odyssey so far- but if you can tell me a better reason why the brown and gold marsh harrier is called the blue-green harrier then I’m all ears grapple fans…

In short,  the marsh harrier has a scientific name which means:"Copper-rust-coloured (eggs) circling hawk"

Hen harrier

Hen Harrier
Circus cyaneus
Linnaeus, 1766


I've been away from "zoo-names" for a wee while (a new son to watch over) but thought I'd start posting again today with another bird of prey whose name is derived from classical Greek mythology.

Our beautiful but endangered "hen harrier" is like the other "harriers" in that the sexes display dimorphism - the males are grey but females are more brown, mottled and camouflaged - with a long barred tail.
Unlike other birds of prey however, hen harriers also are known to indulge in a spot of polygyny (one male mating with several females).
Americans call our "hen harrier" the "Northern harrier" but we've given it a name that nods to the fact that this beautiful raptor does like to prey on young fowl - often the odd grouse - which has probably meant its unfortunate downfall on our little set of islands in the North Atlantic.
Incidentally, the word "harrier" itself is derived from the Old English word hergian and Middle English word Harien - which meant "one that harries" or one that "harasses" or "repeatedly attacks".
I'll return to the verb "to harry" later in this blog post.

So that's the stem of its common English-speaking name, but what of its scientific name?
Once again, we must dive into Greek mythology to find an answer.

Firstly, the generic name, Circus.
All harriers belong to the Circus genus - and there are nine species in the world.
These days, we know a "Circus" to be a big-top, with a ring master, some scary clowns with buckets of tinsel, maybe a trapeze artist or two and if we're really lucky, no "tame" lions or giraffes.
The word circus is a Latin term meaning "ring" (my mention of "ring master" above is quite deliberate).
You've heard of the Circus Maximus in ancient Rome I expect - where chariots were raced under the din of the baying crowd. No? Awww..... watch the film "Ben Hur" then.
This Latin word stems from the ancient Greek word - Kirkos (or even Krikos) - meaning "ring" but some people might tell you that Kirkos also means "hawk or falcon" in ancient Greek. Does it?

Dig deeper into your classical texts (Homer's "The Odyssey" is a good start) and you'll discover that Kirkos does mean "hawk" - but more pertinently, a hawk that "circles" or a hawk that "is circled".
If you DO read Homer's "The Odyssey" (thoroughly recommended if you're into your scientific nomenclature) or any other ancient Greek text, you may well happen across a flame-red-haired, witch-like goddess called "Circe".
Circe was a bit of a girl to be honest. She lived on an island called Aeaea, (pronounced EE-EE-A) off the coast of Italy - and from her enchanted island she lured sailors off their ships, had her carnal way with them and when she was satiated, turned them into knackered (quite literally) animals - swine often.
Her island's name "Aeaea" was thought to be magical - spelled the same backwards as forwards - a magical trap - ensnaring all men who set foot on Circe's island.
The goddess Circe (pronounced "SUR-SEE") often took the form of a falcon or hawk and flew round her sailor suitors (soon to be swine) in rings or circles - bewitching them.

So if the ancient Latin word Circus means “ring” derived from the ancient Greek word Kirkos meaning “ring” or “circle” or “hawk” or “circling hawk” or “circled hawk” – what on earth does that have to do with our “hen harrier”?
Well.... harriers' faces are particularly owl-like - they have a noticeable facial disk like owls, which is very different to other raptors.
That could be a reason I guess - but I somehow doubt it.
Now... the female hen harrier does have a long, barred tail - and these days, birdwatchers often refer to the female hen harrier as a "ring tail".
So - is that the reason?
Maybe.... but many birds of prey have barred or ringed tails - so I doubt it. It is purely a coincidence that modern-day birdwatchers (or "birders" as they like to call themselves) call the female "circling hawk" the "ring-tail". Incidentally, the female hen harrier was often called the "ring tayle" as far back as the 18th century - it was even thought to be a separate species from the grey male.

No. Almost certainly the reason why this harrier was so-classified scientifically was because of its aerial behaviour - not its markings.
Firstly, hen harriers do quarter low over heathland, often in a loose circle - looking for small mammals and ground-nesting birds.
Secondly - our hen harriers do tend to fly in distinct aerobatic courtship rings when the breeding season commences. This rolling and twisting in the air is known as "sky dancing" - and one could assume that these acrobatic bending flights reminded early zoologists of the legend of "Circe" - who bewitched the her hapless sailors with her acrobatic bendy flights around them.
Very poetic. Very nice!

That's Circus covered. But what about cyaneus?

A little simpler this.
The adult male hen harrier is a beautiful grey colour, like the male Montagu's harrier but unlike the male marsh harrier.
Cyaneus is derived from the Greek kuanos - meaning (dark) blue as is our modern day "cyan". So whilst the male hen harrier might not these days to be considered "cyan", it is a bluey-grey colour and its specific name is there purely to separate it from something like the (once common) male marsh harrier which it manages to do pretty-well I guess.


I said I'd return to the verb "to harry" (where "harrier" comes from).

In our British uplands we manage to create (and indeed create to manage) a perfect habitat for hen harriers, which love to hunt for small mammals and birds over upland heaths and moors.
This has brought this wonderful bird into terrible conflict over our vast red grouse moors and with the estate owners - so much so that the hen harrier is now the most endangered breeding bird of prey in the UK - by some way.
They've all but stopped breeding in England now, although Scottish birds are tending to fare a little better.
The argument about grouse moor landowners allegedly (and clandestinely) instructing their keepers to kill (all) harriers is a hotly debated subject, plastered all over the web - it certainly does seem to go on, but proving it is fraught with difficulty.

The most (in)famous episode of harriers being shot (allegedly) happened on a Sandringham Estate in Norfolk a few years ago, when even Prince Harry was interviewed by police after two birds fell from the sky after a couple of muffled shotgun blasts, as the nearby reserve warden watched.
Now I'm certainly no royalist ('though I do think Harry is generally a good bloke) but even I can appreciate the fact that "to harry" means "to aggressively badger, harass or attack", and "Harry" himself was interviewed because two "Harriers" were killed when he and his friends were on the estate.
Harry and his pals pleaded ignorance and as the two harrier corpses were never located (for ballistic checks), no-one was charged. 
I'm not suggesting Harry harried the harriers, but someone did - and the birds both died.

What is for sure is that unless things change, the hen harrier will certainly not be breeding in England any more. (I rather think none did in England last year).


Before I go and coddle an egg or two for breakfast (I'll harry our hens for those eggs), I'd just like to briefly mention that in France the hen harrier is known as the "Buzzard of St.Martin" (or "Le Busard Saint Martin" haw hee haw hee haw) because traditionally migrating hen harriers would start to arrive (after breeding) in lowland France on St.Martins day (11th November).


Right.
Once again I seemed to have waffled on like a right one, but in a nutshell, the hen harrier has a scientific name which means:
"Blue-coloured circling hawk"

White-tailed sea eagle

White-tailed sea eagle
Haliaeetus albicilla
[Linnaeus, 1758


The white-tailed sea eagle has one of the most  apt (if uninspiring) scientific name and that's the only reason why I've included it in this list.

Haliaeetus comes from the Greek, halos: "the sea" and aetos: "eagle".
albicilla stems from Latin, albus: "white" and (modern) Latin, cilla: "tail".

So, the white-taile sea eagle has a scientific name which means:
"Sea eagle with a white tail"

Goldeneye

Goldeneye
Bucephala clangula
[Linnaeus, 1758]


Probably my favourite duck of all (it battles with the wigeon for that title), the goldeneye is a stunning tree-nesting diving duck which breeds in the far north but is now being persuaded to breed in Scotland (and spread south from there) in nest-boxes.

Goldeneye are relatively often encountered on lakes, reservoirs and gravel pits in England during the winter - and this species of duck was the reason why I bought my inflatable boat "Mandarin". I wanted to take photos of these ducks starting to display in February on English gravel pits - but needed to get closer to the fowl - which meant I needed a boat.

Male goldeneye have a fascinating breeding display which you can see here. The drakes throw their bull-heads right back, cry and kicks up some water - its really fun to watch.

Right then.... what about their name?

Well... "goldeneye" itself is pretty apt for obvious reasons but its scientific name is less obvious.

Bucephala literally means "bull-headed" from the Greek bous:"bull" and kephalos:"head" (think kephalonia)
clangula literally means "to resound" from the Latin clangere. (think the CLANG! of  a bell).

I can almost begin to appreciate the bull-headed bit - the drakes at least are thick headed and thick necked (and seemingly quite driven when breeding time arrives), but what about the "resounding" bit?

The drakes are very noisy at breeding time - emitting a double quack which can be heard over a kilometer away allegedly - this has given the species its specific name.
Click here to listen to a range of these calls...

The goldeneye also whistles loudly whilst in flight (in North America they're sometimes known as "Whistler ducks") - so quite a noisy duck really I guess.
(I still think the wigeon is far noisier though and the specific name for goldeneye is a little strange).

To summarise, the goldeneye has a scientific name which literally means:
"The bull-head which resounds"

King eider

King eider
Somateria spectabilis
[Linnaeus, 1758]

I've included the king eider in this blog, just so that we can dissect the word "spectabilis", as it crops up many times in zoological scientific names.

The king eider does not get its English name from someone being angry with a normal Eider ('king eider....) but from the fact that it looks like a very royal eider indeed....

If you'll permit me to refer to you to the (bog standard) Eider scientific name explanation on this blog, you see where Somateria stems from ("wool body" in Greek).
spectabilis however, means "spectacular" or "remarkable" in Latin - very apt I think when one compares a King Eider (drake) to its less remarkable cousin...

So... the King Eider's scientific name literally means:

"Spectacular or remarkable soft woolly body"

Eider

Eider
Somateria mollissima
[Linnaeus, 1758]

The eider (duck) is a large, impressive duck, found in numbers around our northern coasts (my father in Fife sees many) and is fabled for its soft feathers which were stuffed into bedding for the luxury "eiderdown" feel...

Every spring the female duck makes a nest, sheds 17 gram of grey, very light down into it and lays 4-5 big eggs.
After its ducklings have hatched, all eiders return back to the ocean.
The down left behind, comes only from female, fully grown, live birds. This makes it always mature and uniform.

Currently, the majority of eiderdown on the world market comes from Iceland where harvesting it is a thousand year old tradition. Only 2.5 t are properly gathered every spring and cleaned by specialized, secret technology which leaves Icelandic eiderdown without contest in quality.

The Eider duck was clearly well known for its soft down feathers and its Greek and Latin name is testament to that....

Somaterion is derived from soma and erion ("body" and "wool" in Greek)
mollissima means "very soft" in Latin (from mollis :soft).
There we have it then.
The Eider is scientifically known as:
"very soft woolly-bodied"

Common scoter

Common scoter
Melanitta nigra
[Linnaeus, 1758]


The common scoter is a large sea duck that is black.... very black indeed and is almost completely confined to being a winter visitor (only) to the UK.

Its scientific name is pretty apt, if a little heavy-on-the-mustard.

Melanitta literally means "black duck" from the Greek melas meaning "dark" or "black" (think melanistic & melanin) and netta meaning "duck".
nigra comes from the Latin niger meaning "shining black".

SOoooo....

The common scoter has a scientific name which quite liddderallllly means the:

"Black duck that's (so black ... it's) shiny black"

Ok... we get it, we get it.

It's black.

It'll always be the ACDC of ducks to me....

Scaup

Scaup
Aythya marila
[Linnaeus, 1761]

The scaup always makes me think of a tufted duck that has lost its tuft due to large waves on the sea. It is similar to a tufted duck after all, but does prefer the sea to inland bodies of water.

It also differs from the far more oft-encountered tufted duck in that the drake has a distinctively coloured back - a mottled grey affair - and this gives the scaup its very apt very descriptive, wholly Greek scientific name.

Think of a bonfire that has burned almost out - and picture the embers as they lose their glow...

Aythya (like the tufted duck) has a stem in aithuia - "a diving waterbird as described by Aristotle".
marila has its root in the Greek word marile meaning "charcoal embers".

So... the scaup, at least scientifically, is known as the very descriptive:

"charcoal-ember diving duck"

Tufted duck

Tufted duck.
Aythya fuligula  
[Linnaeus, 1758]

The tufted duck is a beautiful wee duck (at least the drake is), all decked out in jet black and snow white with bright yellow eyes.
My wife and I were fortunate enough to watch a tufted duck family raise a small brood of ducklings on the river Lea in Tottenham Hale when we lived there at the turn of the century and to see these tiny dark brown spikey (nidifugous) young dive for food at a day old was something I'll never forget.

We know the tufted duck as the tufted duck because of the drake's errr..... tuft.

But in times gone by, the duck was known at least scientifcally, as the ...
"sooty- throated diving duck"

(Aythya from aithuia: "a diving waterbird described by Aristotle" (Greek of course)
Fuligula from fuligo: "soot"  and gula: "throat"  (both Latin))

I guess the male tufted duck (drake!) does have a "sooty-looking throat" - and I guess its black throat is often more obvious than its tuft, so I can live with this scientific name....

Wigeon

Wigeon

Anas penelope
[Linnaeus, 1758]

Now, then. The wigeon. One of my two favourite ducks  - the other being the goldeneye.

Why do I like the wigeon so much? I'm not sure to be honest but they're very pretty ducks and very impressive. I love the sound of wigeon also - all that nasal whinnying and whistling - they're great fun to watch.

The wigeon has a scientific name rooted in classical mythology - something I certainly appreciate (always have) and a subject that I'll return to many times I expect (especially when I start to explain the scientific names of our lepidoptera).

We've seen before that Anas means duck in Latin, but what does Penelope mean or where does the name Penelope come from - does Anas Penelope mean "Penelope's duck" and who, if that is true, was "Penelope"?

Penelope in classical Greek mythology was the wife of the hero Odysseus. Penelope was celebrated for her faithfulness and patience.
For the 20 years that her husband was away during and after the Trojan War (think Homer's "Odyssey"), Penelope remained true to him and helped prevent his kingdom from falling into other hands.
Penelope's parents were Prince Icarius of Sparta and the nymph Periboea.
Periboea hid her infant daughter (Penelope) as soon as she was born, knowing that Icarius had wanted a son.
As soon as Icarius discovered the baby girl, he threw her into the sea to drown.
However, a family of ducks rescued her.
Seeing this as an omen, Icarius named the child Penelope (after the Greek word for penelops meaning "duck") and raised her as his favourite child.

I'm sure the wigeon was arbitrarily given the title of the duck that saved Penelope from drowning (it could have been any species after all), but that matters not I guess.

So.... the specific name for the wigeon literally means "the saviour of Penelope" and originates in penelops, as described above.


Maybe that's why the wigeon is one of my (if not my) favourite ducks - with a name rooted in classical Greek mythology and named after a character in one of my favourite stories of all time ("The Odyssey").

I've been lucky enough to visit the fabled home of Odysseus, twice (in fact that's where I proposed to my wife) and we hope to return one day. I may take my moth-eaten copy of "The Odyssey" to read once again, on the beautiful beaches of the green Greek island of Kephalonia...


Anyway.... I'm rambling.

The scientific name for the wigeon, a mixture of Latin and Greek, literally means:

"Duck  - duck (that saved Penelope in classical Greek myth)".

 

Shoveler

Shoveler

Anas clypeata
[Linnaeus, 1758]

The shoveler is, depending on what your take on it is, either a strangely named duck (scientifically-speaking) or quite aptly named.

Anas means duck in Latin and clypeata literally means "shield-bearing" (from the Latin clypeus, "shield").

Many people think of the shoveler's shield being the male's obvious white breast but I can't help thinking that the shield is more indicative of the broad shield-like bill of both sexes.

You'll call it as you see fit of course, but in any case, the Latin scientific name for shoveler literally means:
"shield-bearing duck".

Pintail

Pintail

Anas acuta
[Linnaeus, 1758]

The (northern) pintail is a very elegant waterfowl and once was probably the most numerous duck species in the world.
It has a very obvious set of elongated central tail feathers which not only give it its English-speakers' common name of pintail but also its scientific name.

Anas means "duck" in Latin.
acutus literally means "sharp or pointed" in Latin (think of an acute angle or acute appendicitis...)

So, the (northern) pintail's scientific name literally means  "sharp (or pointed) duck".

Gadwall

Gadwall

Anas strepera

[Linnaeus, 1758]

The gadwall is a strangely-named duck in my opinion. Firstly, no-one seems to know where the word "gadwall" actually comes from and secondly it has a pretty poor scientific name.

Anas means "duck" in Latin (which is fair enough I suppose) but streperus means "noisy" in Latin - and this is where I must have missed something when watching these very subtly-beautiful waterfowl.

I would hardly describe the gadwall as a "noisy duck" but that's the literal meaning of its scientific name. Gadwalls are particularly quiet until they start to breed and then, whereas the much noisier (most of the time) mallard goes all quiet (and starts ducking and bobbing) when breeding, the gadwall at least has a mating call (a "nheck" and "whistle")

So yes, I guess the male gadwall does (somewhat) noisily announce his readiness for mating but other than that, I'd not say they're a noisy waterfowl at all...

Brent goose

Brent goose 

Branta bernicla 

[Linnaeus, 1758]

The brent goose is another member of the Anatidae family (swans, ducks and geese) and like the alien Canada goose, a "black goose" like the barnacle goose also - one of the Branta genus of geese as opposed to the grey Anser genus.

I've included the brent goose in my list of zoological nomenclature explanations here as its scientific name might confuse the unsuspecting...

Whilst dissecting the generic name of the Canada goose here, I've explained the stem of Branta (old Norse brand meaning singed black) but what can bernicla mean then?

Rather like the geese we call barnacle geese (similar-looking but unrelated geese, see below) medieval folklore would have it that the brent goose appeared from nowhere in the late autumn - born as goose barnacles (the barnacle was actually named after the goose, not the other way around).
This is because no-one tended to see barnacle or brent geese breeding or young - this all happened in the arctic.
It seems strange to us now that this was believed, but if you look at a goose barnacle, with its feathery feeding appendage extended, you could almost see what those medieval folk meant and understand why they thought goose barnacles were the young geese.

So bernicla literally means "barnacle" in Latin and the scientific name for the brent goose (NOT the barnacle goose), literally means:
the "singed goose that comes from a barnacle".

But what about the bird that we refer to as a "barnacle goose" - it can't have the same scientific name as the brent goose can it?
No... it doesn't. What we call the barnacle goose is referred to scientifically as Branta leucopsis - which literally means the "singed goose with a light white face". Far more sensible than the "singed goose that comes from a barnacle" don't you agree...?

Canada goose

Canada goose

Branta canadensis

[Linnaeus, 1758]

The Canada goose, even though being an alien invader to the UK (first introduced to St.James' Park as a North American addition to Charles II's waterfowl collection in 1665) at least gives me an opportunity to briefly start to discuss the "black geese" scientific names.

The so-called "black geese" all have solid areas of very (very) dark grey or black in their colouration - mainly their bill and feet/legs (but also often in their plumage) and all the "black geese" belong to the Branta genus of geese, as opposed to the Anser genus (grey geese), which have orange or pink feet and bills.

Branta geese as far as us Brits are concerned consist of the Canada goose, the barnacle goose and the brent goose.

Branta (and indeed "brent") has a stem in old Norse - brandgas meaning "burned goose" (singed black goose)
Canadensis is new Latin for "from Canada".

Therefore, the Canada goose has a scientific name composed from old Norse and Latin stems which literally means:
"singed (or burned or branded) goose from Canada".

Pink-footed goose

Pink-footed goose.

Anser brachyrhynchus 

[Baillon, 1834]

The pink-footed goose like any duck, goose or swan belongs to the Anatidae family. The "pink-foot" is a grey goose much like our other grey geese (white-fronted, greylag, bean).

These days, we differentiate between the "pink-footed goose" and its similar grey cousins by noting that the "pink-footed goose" has errr..... pink feet and legs, rather than the orange colour of other grey geese species.

When the pink-footed goose was classified though and given a scientific name, it wasn't the colour of its feet and legs that Baillon noted as different about this species. No... it was the fact that compared to greylag, bean geese and white-fronted geese, the pink-footed goose had a short, stubby bill. Very sensible I think, considering the fact that generally, when one is observing geese, their feet are invariably hidden under water or behind grass - making a determination of their colour often a little difficult.

Anser means "goose" in Latin.
Brakhus means "stubby" or "short" in Greek and Rhunkhos means "bill" (or "nose") also in Greek.

So what we know as the "pink-footed goose" is actually (and sensibly) known scientifically as the:
 "stubby-billed goose".

Bittern

Bittern

Botaurus stellaris 

[Linnaeus, 1758]

The bittern is a strange heron (Ardeidae family) indeed - and well known to early classical naturalists - the bird is even mentioned in the bible.

A bull-necked, thick-set, spangly-plumaged, partially nocturnal heron which hides deep in swamps and reedbeds during the day, the male bellows (or "booms") when advertising for a mate or proclaiming its territory. (See Pliny's description of this "booming" below)

I've almost explained the scientific name for the bittern without even breaking a sweat it seems...

The modern English word "bittern" stems from the old French "butor" which originally comes from the Gallo-Romance buitaurus ("ox-bull"), possibly on account of the fact that Pliny described it as "a bird which bellowed as a bull" - although this does seem a bit strange to me.

Botaurus is a Latin corruption of buitaurus and means (as described above) ox-bull.
Stellaris, Latin again, means "starry" - allthough whether this describes the bittern's spangled plumage or nocturnal habits might be up for debate (probably the former if I had to guess).

There we have it then... the bittern's Latin (in this case) name, literally means:

"Starry ox-bull".