Bob: the French for Passenger Pigeon is "la tourte". There's a French name
for any bird well known to science, just as there are English names in the
English-speaking scientific community for for countless species that don't
occur in English-speaking countries. You might get some useful expressions
for your presentation from the Canadian website

http://www.qc.ec.gc.ca/faune/oiseaux_menaces/html/tourte.html

James West

-----------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Mauritsen <Bluetooth at csi.com>
To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, June 14, 1999 11:35 PM
Subject: Passenger pigeon in French


Hi.

I've now written my presentation in French about the
passenger pigeon and its extinction. I've been calling
it "pigeon passager" in French, which means "migratory
pigeon", because I don't know if there is
an official title. I'm assuming that there must be,
since the bird used to live across southern and eastern
Canada.

So does anyone know the official French name for this? I
think I assume that it must be a French-Canadian term,
since there were no passenger pigeons in France.

Please note: My presentation is on Thursday. And it won't
be a big deal if I just use the above term. But I'm
curious to know if there is a better one.

Thanks.

Bob Mauritsen
green lake
seattle