Tweeters:

Those who are planning a birding trip to the far east (or who, like myself,
are simply interested in how birds are named, categorized, and regarded by
naturalist in other countries and other traditions) would do well to visit
this site: http://www.cjvlang.com/Birds/index.html ("Bird names in Chinese,
Japanese, and Vietnamese").

Though the site is still incomplete, there is a wealth of information on how
and why birds are categorized differently by naturalists in the three
different linguistic traditions (actually traditions with many
commonalities). The author of the site also provides an impressive list of
reference works that were used in creating the site.

The text and comments (by someone resident in China) are very well-written,
and appear, to my untutored eye, biologically well grounded.




James McGough
jmcgough at nwlink.com