Going to need a good lawyer

[Sue U]

This is all fine and dandy sir, but absolutely no one around here ever says "Canada Goose". I sing the song of my people.

O Canadia?

[TPFKA@W]

This is all fine and dandy sir, but absolutely no one around here ever says "Canada Goose". I sing the song of my people.

O Canadia?

The issue seems to extend no further than Canadian Goose.

[Big RR]

Do people in Canada call them Canada geese, Canadian geese, or just geese?

eta: And what do the call the American Black Bear (ursus americanis)? The America Black Bear? North America Black Bear? United States of America Black Bear? Or do the resort to using American .

[rubato]

"....

In The Birds of America (1827-39), John James Audubon uses the attributive noun: “The Canada Geese are fond of returning regularly to the place which they have chosen for resting in, and this they continue to do until they find themselves greatly molested while there.”
.... "

I don't really want to know in any detail what kind of research he was doing there.


yrs,
rubato

[wesw]

make fun of meade, as you are wont to do....

but they are Canada geese, I tell you true.

now don t be sad, and don t be blue ,

learn from meade, and be smart too!

[TPFKA@W]

make fun of meade, as you are wont to do....

but they are Canada geese, I tell you true.

now don t be sad, and don t be blue ,

learn from meade, and be smart too!

No thank you. Meade drives himself crazy in his efforts to be king of all control freaks. It's quite amusing to watch him try to rein in everyone else, but to suffer his particular affliction, nope.

[Big RR]

Absolutely; I really don't care what meade calls them (so long as I can understand what sort of goose he is referring to), but it apparently annoys him to no end if other people give the geese a commonly accepted (colloquial?) name. And I do find that amusing.

For me it begins and ends at what the reason for the existence of language is--communication. If one can more easily communicate by calling something a Canadian Goose than a Canada Goose, then use that term by all means; use of the proper scientific name might well be required for ornithological journals (or, I imagine, for statutory law that protects such migratory birds), but not in common language. And it is that sort of language we use here. Meade (and others here) might disagree, but that's how I view it.

[wesw]

oh, I say Canadian geese too, but when I write the name I do it correctly. Canada geese

[TPFKA@W]

oh, I say Canadian geese too, but when I write the name I do it correctly. Canada geese

Being the board's oracle on all things spelling, punctuation and grammar as you are.

[Joe Guy]

Why is everybody trying to get Meade's gander up?

[Big RR]

Well, if we're talking about writing on this board, I may well write Candan Geese, being the stickler for typos that I am.

[RayThom]

make fun of meade, as you are wont to do....
but they are Canada geese, I tell you true.
now don t be sad, anddon t be blue ,
learn from meade, and be smart too!

Burma Shave.

[MajGenl.Meade]

What a leaping to the barricades! Sensitive nerve, much? I'm more amused than anything else.

"Colloquial" in this case means misnaming. "Oh, look. There's a Balding Eagle! Or is it an Old Bagel? Who cares?"

[BoSoxGal]

Kinda like saying birds of prey v. prey birds . . .

[Lord Jim]

Kinda like saying birds of prey v. prey birds . . .

Oh by all means, let's go down that road again...

(One of the few discussions we've had around here that had me and rube on the same side:)

Guess which one is the "Bird Of Prey" and which one is the "Prey Bird"?:

[wesw]

I m gonna eat one either way.....

....the prey bird, not the bird of prey.



I think Canadia sounds better than Canada anyway. change it please, Canadians?

[No Greater Fool]

The OED has only one other citation for the usage, from the Penny Cyclopaedia (1838): “The Canada Goose generally builds its nest on the ground.”

The dictionary, which has no citation for “Canadian” goose or geese, notes that the noun “Canada” is used attributively—that is, adjectivally—“in the names of various commercial products, animals, and plants.”

In addition to “Canada goose,” the OED cites “Canada jay,” “Canada potato” (Jerusalem artichoke), “Canada rice” (an aquatic grass), “Canada thistle,” “Canada violet,” and others.

In the 19th century, writers used the attributive noun (“Canada”) as well as the adjective (“Canadian”) in referring to the goose.

For example, Meriwether Lewis, in a May 15, 1805, journal entry during his expedition with William Clark, uses the adjective in reporting “a small species of geese which differ considerably from the common canadian goose.”

And The American Universal Geography (1812), in listing birds of the United States, says, “The Canadian goose (Anser canadensis) is a bird of passage, and gregarious.”

In The Birds of America (1827-39), John James Audubon uses the attributive noun: “The Canada Geese are fond of returning regularly to the place which they have chosen for resting in, and this they continue to do until they find themselves greatly molested while there.”

And in Ornithological Biography (1835), Audubon describes a “curious mode of shooting the Canada Goose I have practised with much success.”

Audubon says he sinks a hogshead in the sand, covers himself with brushwood, “and in this concealment I have killed several at a shot; but the stratagem answers for only a few nights in the season.”

We’ve come across several theories about why English speakers generally prefer the term “Canada goose” to “Canadian goose.”

Another theory is that English speakers use the attributive noun “Canada” for the goose because canadensis in the scientific Latin name means “of Canada.”

But the ornithologist and zoologist Richard C. Banks, quoted on snopes.com, has said “the English name of a species is not directly related to the scientific name or its ending.”

Banks says the common names of birds probably develop simply because the people who use them prefer them to the alternatives.

Pat Schwieterman, a contributor to the Language Log, notes that the adjectival form is typically used when the names of countries modify nouns, while the attributive form is generally used when the names of states or provinces modify nouns.

He cites such avian adjectival examples as the American crow, the Cuban parakeet, and the Jamaican lizard cuckoo, along with attributive examples like the California condor, the Arizona woodpecker, and the Louisiana waterthrush.

We can cite many other examples, notably the American robin, as well as many exceptions, including the subject of today’s post: the Canada goose.

Finally, Laura Erickson, who writes and broadcasts about birds, says on the mailing list of the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union that the Canada goose “gets its name from its breeding range.”

“It is of course perfectly acceptable and correct to call one a ‘Canadian goose’ if you see its passport or some other verification of its citizenship,” she adds.

This is all fine and dandy sir, but absolutely no one around here ever says "Canada Goose". I sing the song of my people.

Hoosier Nation?

[BoSoxGal]

There's no such thing as a prey bird in the meaning you suggest, LJ.

We'll agree to disagree on this point.

[rubato]

Ahhh peregrin falcons!







The Predatory Bird Research Group at UCSC (my alma mater) brought them back from the brink of extinction in California and now we have several pairs locally and hundreds across the state.


They are very vocal birds when they fly around the neighborhood. 240 mph killing machines!


yrs,
rubato

[Guinevere]

The good folks at the world's leading ornithology lab (Cornell, my alma mater) beg to disagree:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pere ... ifehistory

•The Peregrine Falcon is a very fast flier, averaging 40-55 km/h (25-34 mph) in traveling flight, and reaching speeds up to 112 km/h (69 mph) in direct pursuit of prey. During its spectacular hunting stoop from heights of over 1 km (0.62 mi), the peregrine may reach speeds of 320 km/h (200 mph) as it drops toward its prey

.