Day 349

Thursday 04 March

I was reading over a few posts from previous days and was reflecting how pleased I was with myself about including the Latin name for flora and fauna that I have mentioned. I was pleased with myself because it’s also been a pretty tough day at work today and was looking for a pick-me-up.

I love that we use the classical Latin (and Greek sometimes) language to classify plants animals. It adds a romance to the naming and does allow for connections between species and sub-species to be made. It was the Swedish naturalist Carl Von Linne, better known as Carl Linnaeus, that began categorising animals and plants in the 1700’s who devised it.

Birds scientific names have naturally grabbed my attention and there are some real beauties. Let’s start with the wren, Troglodytes troglodytes – a cumbersome and clumsy name for the smallest of birds. I just doesn’t suit the bird in my opinion. A troglodyte is a prehistoric version of  man who lived in caves. I really don’t see where Mr Linneaus got that idea from?

Turdus is the unfortunate family name for the thrush, but there are many species belonging to this group. Turdus Merula (Blackbird), Turdus Philomelos (Song Thrush) and Turdus Pilaris (Fieldfare) are just a few. But this family, with such beautiful songs and mannerisms don’t deserve such a crap name (poor pun).

Parus is the appropriate genus name for Old World birds, the tits, and these birds are often seen in two’s (even poorer pun). Parus caeruleus (blue tit) is a great name and sounds to me like it should belong to an infamous Roman general. Parus major is the fitting name for the great tit, whilst the delicate Long-Tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) isn’t even in the same family, this was down to Aristotle apparently who named some tits using the Aegithalidae name.

Then there are some beautiful Latin names. Pica pica is the Magpie and I think that sounds a bit like it’s clacking call. And the classy and sophisticated looking Little Egret is called Egretta garzetta. Just perfect.

I also love how the Latin names are presented in italics, in brackets and with the initial letter of the family name as a capital letter. And why do we use latin? Well, the reason is quite disappointing really. It’s simply because it’s a ‘dead’ language, unused by any specific country and would therefore hold no bias.