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Message: [QUOTE="Oliver Buckle, post: 212350, member: 12649"] That's very true, Mike Allen. Not only are they not understood, but frequently misunderstood as well. As Englishmen traveled the world they named things for the things they remembered from their old country. I wrote a piece about robins once and put it on my writing forum, it got some strange reactions. The bird Americans call a robin is actually a type of thrush, rather than a chat, or flycatcher, like ours. Its only relation to our robin is its red breast. I don't know that I would agree with abandoning the common names though, I would advocate adding the agreed Latin name, so "My friendly little robin (Erithacus rubecula), will sometimes come within inches when I am disturbing the ground and turning up insects." Mind you, no matter how sensible and how much confusion it avoids I have a feeling we old codgers might be on a losing battle here :) [/QUOTE]