Original posted by msamuel at 26/10/2011 22:27
順道一提,今期(和上期)通訊內的麻鷹文章精彩,繼續努力
多謝支持!不過下一期仲未想到題材....Author: John Holmes Time: 27/10/2011 09:59 Subject: Day at Mai Po
Samuel,
The bird formerly known as "Common Buzzard" (Buteo buteo) has now been "split" and on the HK List it is now "Eastern Buzzard" (Buteo japonicus).
So the bird hasn't changed, but the name has.
John Author: msamuel Time: 27/10/2011 22:13
John, thank you for updating me. I was not aware of that before.
An immediate question comes to my mind. What should it be called in Chinese? Still 普通鵟 (meaning common buzzard in English) or 東方鵟 (meaning eastern buzzard in English)? When we edited the book “A Handbook of Hong Kong Terrestrial Birds” (to be published), we had similar puzzle about Chinese bird names.
If we call “Buteo japonicas” Eastern Buzzard in English here in Hong Kong, there is no point to call it 普通鵟 in Chinese (meaning common buzzard in English) here in Hong Kong. It does not make much sense for English name of a bird meaning one thing and Chinese name meaning another. Further, how should we call “Buteo buteo” seen in Europe while on vacation, Common Buzzard? It is not common to us! Would it be better to be called Western Buzzard? If English names are local and only the scientific/Latin names are universally unique, what about calling “Buteo japonicas” Common Buzzard here then?
In fact, I don’t like the idea of calling birds “Common”, or even more “Eastern” or “Western”. These words have a relative sense and sometimes create unnecessary confusion. Common Starling is an example. It is not the common starling in Hong Kong. Great Egret we see here is Eastern Great Egret, while Osprey is Western Osprey!
Samuel Author: gary Time: 28/10/2011 00:29
Taking about Chinese name, I prefer use Chinese.
首先請理解中英文俗名不必要一致的原則。 由於種種原因,中英文鳥種名稱很多時都未必相應,否則會造成一些不方便,樹麻雀便要改成歐亞樹麻雀(Eurasian Tree Sparrow)。而且中文名稱只通用於東亞地區,所以改中文名時只顧及東亞地區的須要並無大問題。
香港常見的鵟,是Buteo japonica, 英文可以叫Eastern Buzzard, 但牠是東亞區常見的,所以保留普通鵟一名亦不覺有甚麼問題。我相信不會有歐洲人考究中文鳥名而查問我們為何叫普通鵟而不叫東方鵟。
而Common Buzzard, Buteo buteo, 你可以叫牠歐亞鵟,不過如果你身處歐洲,拿著一本英文guide book, 我相信你唔會用中文名去描述d雀。