标题: Canada Goose (also known as Canadian Goose) [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 8-15-2015 11:28 标题: Canada Goose (also known as Canadian Goose) Alistair MacDonald, Even Canada's Most Fowl Take Flight When They Get a Gander at a Drone; Entrepreneur wants to clear capital city of country's namesake geese; National bird? Wall Street Journal, Aug 14, 2015 (front page). http://www.wsj.com/articles/cana ... ng-geese-1439510869
Quote:
"a goose [ ] can drop 2 pounds of poop a day. * * * While reviled for its ability to defecate every 20 minutes, Branta Canadensis is often seen here as a hardy survivor whose noisy migration home in the spring sounds the welcome end of another long winter.
“ 'Among the first to arrive in spring, and last to leave in winter, they mate for life and both parents share in raising their young,' Canadian novelist Will Ferguson wrote
"The Goosebuster, as Mr [photographer Steve] Wambolt calls his drone, is 26 inches wide with six rotors. It has a number of modifications, including speakers that blast the sounds of predator birds, such as eagles, hawks and buzzards, a strobe light and a coat of black paint. 'They don’t like the color black,' he said.
"The US government’s Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that last year there were at least 4.8 million Canada geese in North America.
Note:
(a) The "most fowl" is a wordplay on "most foul."
(b)
(i) The English noun gander is usually used in the phrase
作者: choi 时间: 8-15-2015 11:30
(c)
(i) Canada goose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_goose
(Branta Canadensis; Native to arctic and temperate regions of North America; Like most geese, the Canada goose is primarily herbivorous and normally migratory; section 1 Taxonomy and etymology)
(ii) About genus name “Branta.”
Walter W Skeat, The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology; The pioneering work on the roots and origins of the language. Wordsworth Editions, 1993, at page 57 https://books.google.com/books?i ... ymology&f=false
("brant-fox, brant-goose or brent-goose. The prefix is Scand., as in Swed. brandärf, a brant-fox, brandgås, a brent-goose. The orig. sense is 'burnt,' with the notion of redness or brownness")
(iii) About species name Canadensis. See Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada
(section 1 Etymology)
(d) "Now Mr Wambolt has big ambitions. He wants to clear Canada’s capital of the Canada goose, by creating a squadron of drones to be flown from strategic stations around Ottawa. That could ruffle feathers in a country with a highly conflicted view of the goose to which it has given its name."
The clause: “the goose to which it [Canada] has given its name." This sounds like Canada truly endows the bird with the country’s name. But this is untrue. The term "Branta canadensis (Linnaeus)" appears in a Web page (titled "Branta canadensis") created and maintained by USDA Forest Service. So without a doubt, Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778) named the bird. 作者: choi 时间: 8-15-2015 11:32
(e) "in 2017 marking 150 years of the country’s confederation"
(i) "Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, initially with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick" Wikipedia
(ii) Prince Edward Island "did not join Confederation until 1873," and Newfoundland and Labrador in 1949. Wikipedia
(f) "Not everybody in the park is a fan of the Goosebuster. Linda Hay had been photographing the 'big mama' before Mr Wambolt’s drone chased it off. The bird was actually a Brant goose from the Arctic, one of 69 different bird species in Andrew Haydon Park, Ms Hay said."
Brant goose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brant_goose
(Branta bernicla; bernicla is from the same source as "barnacle" in barnacle goose, which is similar in appearance; is a small goose)