The snow leopard was archaically referred to as an 'Ounce' referring to its scientific name Uncia uncia/ Panthera uncia
.....which is not unreasonable when you see a really good male in breeding plumage. It really does look a bit like a Strawberry.
Exactly what is an avadavat/waxbill? - if not a finch? Amandava - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Amandava Amandava is a genus of the estrildid finches. These birds are found in dense grass or scrub in ... The two avadavats, which are very closely related, are found in tropical South Asia, and the waxbill in Africa. Various members of this genus are ... Genus: Amandava; Blyth, 1836
It's not a Fringillid finch, like a canary or a goldfinch. Colloquially at least, it's an Estrildid finch, like the zebra finch, which is a Ploceid finch, or a Cuban finch, which is a tanager.
Never knew that...I like to watch the ones at Newquay and they do look more like a tiny Tanager than a finch, in some respects. They appear not to flock like most finches do, either.
So what you should have said is that this genus of finch is not closely related to other finches - rather than it not being a finch at all. 'Finch'is a pretty broad name, as FPBird made very clear.
Following in the finch topic, "robin" and "thrush" are rather overused in my opinion. Would have been nice to get some newer names as previous thrushes were split to other families, rather than robin-chat, laughingthrush, scrub-robin, thrush tanager, magpie-robin, quail-thrush, etc. (Yes, I know some of those were never thrushes, but the point remains) I think the biggest offender is robin though; to me in the states, I immediately think Turdus migratorius. In Europe, robin is Erithacus rubecula; India has Saxicoloides fuliacatus, Australia with the several Petroica robins. Just gets confusing.
One of my favourite scientific names that is no longer in use is for the otter civet. I have found several references to the species being referred to as Viverra carcharias - literally 'shark civet'.
I'm guessing that is a reference to the teeth. Blainville described it from a skull, and the teeth of Cynogale are distinctive (although I don't know if they could be described as being like those of a shark). The original paper is in French, so I haven't tried to find it.
A few of the ones I've heard growing up: 'Cow Killer' for velvet ants. 'Brim' as a catch-all term for small freshwater sunfish. 'Timberdoodle' for the American woodcock. 'Buzzard' for vultures. 'Woolly worm' for Isabelle tiger moth larvae.
Would've guessed wombat but I guess I'll have to go with quokka? Spiny anteater is definitely an echidna. Rat kangaroo is potoroo I think... Native cat... quoll? Not a dingo, so I guess it must be, though I bet I'm forgetting something... EDIT: Thinking about native bear again... I don't know how many times I have heard koalas referred to as Koala bears . Anyway, I guess that's my answer instead of quokkas.
