Jaundiced birds

I learned one thing from this book. The secretive, mysterious and hard-to-pronounce Latin names of birds (i.e. their proper scientific names) are actually incredibly boring! Here are some examples. Thus, the Barn Owl (of Mothman fame) is called Tyto alba in Latin. “Tuto” simply means night-owl, while “albus” means white. Hence, Tyto alba simply means…you guessed it…White Night Owl. Yes, they really are white (that's why they are often mistaken for aliens from Roswell). The Sooty Owl (found in Australia and New Guinea) is scientifically known as Tyto tenebricosa, “tenebricosus” meaning “shrouded in darkness”. Well, it's sooty and it's an owl, so no surprise there either.

The magpie is known in Latin as Pica pica (the nominate subspecies is actually called Pica pica pica). And “pica” means…well, it *means* magpie in Latin. So the stuttering name of the magpie means magpie-magpie-magpie?! Another example: the official name of the Eastern Meadowlark, Sturnella magna, means “Large Little Starling”.

Oookay…

Naturally, I had to check out what Icteridae means. Well, that was somewhat more interesting. It comes from “ikteros”, the Greek name for jaundice. It also refers to a yellowish-green colored bird of uncertain cladistic provenance by looking at which the jaundiced person was cured, after which the bird would die! Well, it's intriguing that the icterids are named after an ancient form of sympathetic magic…

This book is good for reference libraries, or complete nerds, but probably not for the common man (Sturnus, pardon, Homo vulgaris). Three stars.