Mrs Moreau's Warbler
How Birds Got Their Names
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Swallow and starling, puffin and peregrine, blue tit and blackcap. We use these names so often that few of us ever pause to wonder about their origins. What do they mean? Where did they come from? And who created them?
The words we use to name birds are some of the most lyrical and evocative in the English language. They also tell incredible stories: of epic expeditions, fierce battles between rival ornithologists, momentous historical events and touching romantic gestures.
Through fascinating encounters with birds, and the rich cast of characters who came up with their names, in Mrs Moreau's Warbler Stephen Moss takes us on a remarkable journey through time. From when humans and birds first shared the earth to our fraught present-day coexistence, Moss shows how these names reveal as much about ourselves and our relationship with the natural world as about the creatures they describe.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Noting that some bird names are intuitive "Cuckoos do indeed call out their name" and others more obscure, British naturalist and lecturer Moss (A Bird in the Bush: A Social History of Birdwatching) breaks down the guidelines of and patterns in how birds are named in this fascinating examination. Early chapters deal, for instance, with sounds birds made that might have influenced their names such as "crow" and "dove" and with how some names eventually and inevitably changed as the English language itself changed. When labels based on color (e.g., red grouse, grey heron, goldfinch) became too general to be useful, ornithologists began to use "more complex and subtle shades" as well. The more species they discovered, the more visually descriptive the names got. These include the pied flycatcher and pied wagtail, the snowy owl, and the buff-bellied pipit and buff-breasted sandpiper. Subsequent sections deal also with eponymous birds, creatures named after people, primarily men, honoring themselves or paying tribute to others. The titular warbler, for example, is "an obscure and endangered songbird" named in 1938 by Reginald Ernest Moreau, an expert in bird migration, for his wife and fellow bird enthusiast, Winnie. It is one appealing story among many in a comprehensive volume certain to interest scientific readers and general audiences alike. B&w illus.
