[Fictionary] First prize for singing like South American Robins!

[Hutch]

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 9:39 PM, Pierre Abbat <phma at phma.optus.nu> wrote:
> Well, there are apparently no robins in South America, but there's a bird
> Turdus migratorius called a North American robin, and there are other species
> of Turdus in South America, though the common name, and cognate, of Turdus is
> thrush.

Correct common name of Turdus migratorius is "American Robin" (leave
off the "North"). I don't know anything about robins in South America,
but I would be quite surprised if there were no birds that locals of
European descent called "Robin", regardless of its formal "common
name".

Not all robins are thrushes either; only the American. E.g., there is
an entire family of birds called "Australasian Robins".

The European bird that the American Robin was named for is not a
thrush at all, but an Old World Flycatcher: European Robin [Erithacus
rubecula].

Also included in the Old World Flycatchers are genera called
"Bush-Robin", "Magpie-Robin", "Robin", "Robin-Chat", and
"Scrub-Robin". Among these are the oddly named (to ME, at any rate)
Indian *Blue* Robin [Larvivora brunnea], *Blue*-fronted Robin
[Cinclidium frontale], *Yellow*-bellied Robin [Eopsaltria
flaviventris], and *White*-breasted Robin [Eopsaltria georgiana].

Also highly amusing is the Smoky Robin [Peneothello cryptoleuca],
apparently limited to a small range in Papua New Guinea. I'll bet its
song is ... a Miracle. *groan*

None of which are thrushes.

[snip]
> Nicolas: Heh. Couple of sounds-like groupings, African and Polynesian, with
> one isolate ;o).
> Hutch: VERY good selection of fictionitions.
> J-J: I'm surprised that nobody submitted the obvious:
> borututu - v. - To get a ballet skirt on loan.
> (after voting) [Hmm, tree bark.  Oh well.]
[snip]
> borututu - n. - [Luba] 1) A wide, shallow area in a river where hippopotamus
> congregate. 2) An unsafe ford.
> by Hutch. 3
> 1 yellow showy point
> Eric: One point, because I like hippoi potamus.
> Nicolas: Sounds good to me. 1 point.
> Hutch: Mine
[snip]
> Borututu - n. - A ritual dance of welcome performed to celebrate the arrival
> of visiting chiefs in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
> by Dominus. 0
> Nicolas: Hmm... plausible, but I worry tutu->dance is sign of a fake.
> Hutch: The similarity of this to Margaret Mead's Fijian dance move makes me
> say no.
>
> Pierre
> --
> li fi'u vu'u fi'u fi'u du li pa


J-J made the joke about "borrowing" a "tutu" and Nicolas worried that
"tutu" = "dance" indicated a fictionition. Did nobody guess the source
for my fictionition?

Recall Disney's _Fantasia_, "The Dance of the Hours" sequence, with
alligators in tights and hippopotamus (and elephants!) in tutus. My
fictionition means a hippopotamus dance floor. :-D

BB,
Hutch

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