What a Superb, Splendid Creature! #1

I completely get it - indeed I warmly applaud - when someone waxes lyrical over a plant or animal; even gushing is totally understandable. However when we name a creatures solely with such an appreciative adjective (as opposed to a descriptive one), it becomes perhaps a little less supportable for a couple of reasons. For one thing it's not generally very helpful; for instance, what makes one fairywren Superb, another Lovely and yet another Splendid? If there's a nuance of distinction there I'm afraid it's too subtle for me. For another it can be seriously discriminatory with regard to related creatures. Other equally beautiful fairywrens have sensible serviceable names like Blue-breasted, Red-backed, Purple-crowned etc, so how must they feel about their extravagantly monickered relations?!

Well fortunately the answer is of course "not much", so we probably don't need to waste too much sympathetic outrage on their account. Perhaps we can just smile indulgently and enjoy some animals who have excited sufficient admiration to attract such an 'empty' but almost reverent adjective for their formal English name. (Not many plants seem to have attracted such appellations, but they'll get their turn next time when I turn to scientific names, applied by equally fawning professional taxonomists.) 

Superb

I began by using the Superb Fairywren as an example, so I'll allow it to be first along the red carpet.

Superb Fairywren Malurus cyaneus, just round the corner from my home in suburban Canberra (in Duffy).
Like many of these examples, as you'll see, this one was bestowed its Superb name directly from its scientific
name (though in this case that original name disappeared - George Shaw used the name on a plate which showed
both this species and a Variegated Fairwren, as he thought they were variants of the same species,
so it was impossible to know which he meant).

Superb Parrot Polytelis swainsonii, Mulligans Flat NR, north of Canberra.
This name seems to have arisen spontaneously towards the end of the 19th century.

Superb Lyrebird Menura novaehollandiae, Fitzroy Falls, NSW.
Again it was originally named superba, but in this case the eminent English ornithologist John Latham
seems to have back-dated his own description to gain precedence!

We also have a Superb Fruit Dove, but in all the rest of the world there are only another four Superb birds, including a pitta and a bird-of-paradise (but plenty of other superb ones of course!).

Splendid

There are five Splendid birds in the world, but only one in Australia.

Splendid Fairywren Malurus splendens, Alice Springs - and he'll be even more splendid
when he's finished moulting into his breeding finery.

 Here's one of the overseas Spendid birds though.

Splendid Starling Lamprotornis splendidus, Entebbe, Uganda.

And it's time we thought beyond birds too...

Splendid Ghost Moth Aenetus ligniveren, Namadgi National Park, above Canberra.

Magnificent

Probably upping the ante somewhat now, and the only Australian bird candidate is a riflebird, of which I don't have a photo. It's not the only Magnificent Australian animal though.

Magnificent Tree Frog Litoria splendida, Territory Wildlife Park south of Darwin.
Restricted to the Kimberley of north-western Australia, this beauty was only described in 1977.
Note the conflict between English and scientific names!

Elsewhere there is a Magnificent bird however in the waters of tropical America and the eastern Atlantic.

Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens, Seymour, Galápagos.
Despite earlier comments it might seem a bit hard to argue with this name - except that
all other frigatebird males are likewise adorned!

Paradise

This is a rather odd one, for perhaps a couple of reasons, but mostly because 'paradise' is generally regarded as only a noun. However it appears in various animal names.

Paradise Tree Snake Chrysopelea paradisi, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
Also known as Paradise Flying Snake, this one hurled itself into space, gliding on flattened ribs,
a couple of seconds later; I don't know if this had anything to do with its naming...

There is a group of paradise-kingfishers and another of Old World paradise flycatchers (Family Monarchidae); here are some of them.

Blyth's Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone affinis, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.

Madagascan Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone mutata, Ankarana NP, Madagascar.

African Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone viridis, Benoué NP, Cameroon.
This is a white morph of a usually copper-coloured bird.

In Australia there is also a Paradise Riflebird, though my only photo of one is awful, in dull light against the sky; moreover the female was probably not what William Swainson had in mind when he named it.

Female Paradise Riflebird Ptiloris paradiseus, Bunya Mountains, Queensland.

In happier days we also had a Paradise Parrot, before we extirpated it.

Then there are names which celebrate equally nebulous traits, but more modest ones - elegance, daintiness and grace.

Elegant

We have an Elegant Parrot, but I don't have a photo, though other elegant species will feature in a coming posting for their scientific names. I can offer a couple of Elegant Americans though.

Elegant Terns Thalasseus elegans (and Grey-hooded Gulls Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus), Paracas, Peru.
And to suggest that other terns are inelegant does seem defamatory to me!

Elegant Treecreeper Xiphorhynchus elegans, Muyuna Lodge, north-eastern Peru.
To be fair, there are rather a lot of these, all very similar, to find names for.

Dainty

Seems a bit unlikely perhaps, but perhaps not so much as the news that the only Dainty Australian organism that I'm aware of is a frog.

Dainty Tree Frog Litoria gracilenta, Mount Molloy, north Queensland.
This one, found along the east coast from the tip of Queensland south almost to Sydney,
could just as readily have been translated as 'graceful' and been included under the next heading.

Graceful

Graceful Honeyeater Meliphaga gracilis, Cairns, North Queensland.
This one seems to be down to an error in translation; John Gould in bestowing its scientific name made
it clear he was using it in its more precise sense of meaning 'slender', by contrast with a couple of related species.

And that'll do us for today; such names - indeed all names really - are just human conceits, but I've had some fun with it, and more importantly we've got to meet some lovely, if not superb, animals.

Back next time with more of the same, but looking at scientific names instead.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 11 OCTOBER (when I'll be still be in Brazil)

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