Subject: [Tweeters] binomen-al puzzler
Date: Aug 2 22:14:26 2006
From: Josh Hayes - josh at blarg.net


Someone posted this trivia question to rec.birds; I don't happen to know the
answer off the top of my head: What two American bird species have the same
two words in their latin names, but in reverse order?

That is, one bird is Birdus biggus, and the other is Biggus birdus.

I feel like I ought to know this, but I don't. My son is always astounded
that I know all the bird family names (well, as of the late 1980's; if
they've been renamed, I'm hosed): when I mentioned the earlier (alas, false)
sighting of a phainopepla in the Arboretum, he said, "what's a
phaino-thingy?" and I said, "It's a silky flycatcher, Bombycillidae".
(Although my team-teacher colleague at the University of Texas preferred
referring to any waterfowl as belonging to the "Duckidae". I still use that
term, dammit, as in "say, those are two different duckids".)

So, what's the answer?

-Josh