Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC: (sort of) Nothing will ever surpise me again !!!!
Date: Sep 06 22:26:52 1995
From: Ronald Orenstein - ornstn at inforamp.net


>I got chatting with one person who will rename nameless who thought that
>sanderling were "baby seagulls" - I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time
>and YES they were entirely serious.
>
>Is there any hope after experiencing this ????????

Well, it's an old tradition. When I was in New Guinea in 1974 I found that
people at Wau (remember, New Guinea is the island where the locals are
supposed to have a phenomenal knowledge of birds, and often do) believed
that the swiftlets flying around the airstrip were the young of the much
larger tree swifts doing the same thing.

I've done it myself, as a young traveller in Africa in 1966. In Serengeti I
saw large colonies of hyrax (yes, they are mammals, but..) and was struck
by the difference between the largeradults and the small and very
teddy-bear-like young. I found out many years later that these were
actually two different GENERA of hyrax that live together in mixed colonies!
--
Ronald I. Orenstein Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
International Wildlife Coalition Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116 (home)
Home: 1825 Shady Creek Court Messages: (416) 368-4661
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2 Internet: ornstn at inforamp.net
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Toronto, Ontario Canada M5H 3P5