Calidris alpina Etymology (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

As you´ve seen I´ve recently concluded some additional facts from my Swedish manuscript, having the idea I was getting close to finish my own project of Common Swedish Bird Names, but no, no, no (!) … I´m far from finished, due to the simple fact that Markus Lagerqvist suddenly made me a very busy man, for a long, long time forward (adding a multitude, several hundreds of changes!). Meaning I will have to take a necessary break from our dear Bird Name Etymology Sub-forum for a while … for quite a while.

Hereafter I will be in "amendment Land", only checking in randomly, now and then, whenever time allows or possible, so let me round off my presence here (for now) with the following short etymologies:

● Calidris MERREM 1804 = "Gr. καλιδρις kalidris or σκαλιδρις skalidris speckled, grey-coloured waterside bird mentioned by Aristotle, not further identified …" – here I´m simply just quoting James Jobling's excellent HBW Alive Key (here)

● C. alpina (alpina) LINNAEUS 1758 = Latin; alpinus alpine, of high mountains (in this case Linnaeus coined the name from the [not so high] Swedish Scandinavian Mountains (or Scandes): "Habitat in Lapponia", Lappland, Sweden.

● C. a. sakhalina VIEILLOT 1816 = Sakhalin Island (Сахалин or Sachalin), in the Sea of Okhotsk, Far Eastern Russia.

● C. a. schinzii BREHM (& SCHILLING) 1822 = the Swiss doctor (physician), zoologist and ornithologist Heinrich Rudolf Schinz (1777–1862).

● C. a. pacifica COUES 1861 = Pacific Ocean (breeds and migrates along the Pacific coast).

● C. a. arctica SCHIØLER 1922 = Latin; arcticus northern, arctic. Breeds on Greenland.

● the still debated C. a. centralis BUTURLIN 1932 = Latin; centralis central, in the centre, in the middle. Breeds in Central Northern Russia. By some stubbornly considered intermediate of C. a alpina and C. a. sakhalina (… centralis breeds between those two).

● C. a. arcticola TODD 1953 = Latin; arcticus northern, arctic + -cola -dweller, as in colere to dwell.

● the recently discussed, "candidate for split" (!?) C. (a.?) hudsonia TODD 1953 = Hudson Bay, Canada.

● C. a. kistchinski TOMKOVICH 1986 = the Russian ornithologist Александр Александрович Кищинский (1937–1980), whose name is transcribed either as Alexander Aleksandrovich Kistchinsky alt. Kistchinski, Kichinski, Kischinsky or Kistchinskii (choose the one suitable for your language). For him see link (here, in Russian!).

● C. a. actites NECHAEV & TOMKOVICH 1988 = Greek; ακτιτης aktitēs coast-dweller.

And, on top of those, it could be worth to mention:

● C. a. "litoralis" NECHAEV & TOMKOVICH 1987 (preoccupied, emended by NECHAEV & TOMKOVICH themselves 1988; as C. a. actites) = Latin; litoralis littoral, of the shore, from litus, litoris seashore, beach.

● C. a. "islandica" SCHIØLER 1922 = Iceland (the Iclandic population of C. a. schinzii) – a name that might, maybe, could be resurrected!?

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That´s all folks! Although; the main reason for this post (I´m not that much of a "Drama queen") is my wish to express: Many thanks to you guys "out there". Everybody have been more than helpful, full of indulgency towards an ignorant Swede fumbling about, trying to solve some odd etymologies, without understanding of all those texts, in various languages, in different sources and libraries. Once again: Thanks! In an egoistic world … you cannot but love such unreserved, un-selfish, pure kindness!

See you all, (hopefully) next year or the year after.

Keep up the Good Work!

Calidris alpina = "Calalp" … over and out!

:flyaway:

PS. And, one last favourite, just for the fun of it (attached) … a photo of Mr. Кищинский!

 

[Jamie Dunning]

Really interesting read - Thanks for sharing.
J

 

[l_raty]

Calidris MERREM 1804 = "Gr. καλιδρις kalidris or σκαλιδρις skalidris speckled, grey-coloured waterside bird mentioned by Aristotle, not further identified …" – here I´m simply just quoting James Jobling's excellent HBW Alive Key (here)

What is regarded as the OD is here, and the determination of the type species by Oberholser is here (two originally included species: Tringa calidris, presumed of Gmelin, 1789, and Tringa arenaria, presumed of Linné, 1766; type species fixed by tautonymy).

I've always been intrigued by the gender attributed to this name. Although I do not doubt that the word is an alteration/corruption of σκαλιδρις, altered/corrupted words are in other cases not regarded as still "being the original word", and thus not treated as retaining the gender of this word. Eg., Delichon is an obvious alteration of Chelidon, itself a transliteration of χελιδών, which is feminine; yet the gender of Delichon is now regarded as being neuter, based on a determination that does not take the gender of χελιδών into account. The gender of σκαλιδρις is feminine. However, "καλιδρις" does not to occur in any Greek dictionary I have seen. If Calidris is an alteration of "Scalidris", its gender should arguably be determined independently from that of σκαλιδρις, as in the case of Delichon. If so, and as the name does not "reproduce exactly a noun having a gender in a modern European language", the author did not specify any gender, did not combine it with any specific epithet, and the name does not end in -a, -um, -on, or -u, it takes the "default gender", which is masculine.

Where did I go astray?

 

[James Jobling]

"σκαλιδρις ..a speckled waterbird ...Arist. HA593b7 (v. l. καλιδρις)" (H. G. Liddell & R. Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (with supplement), 1968 (repr. 1990), p. 1604 (OUP)).

"σκαλιδρις, σκαλιδρες, σκανδρις, καλιδρις or κανδρις ..A bird mentioned only once, in an Aristotelian passage (HA 593a25-b8) where the manuscripts divide over its spelling in the ways listed above" (W. G. Arnott, Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z, 2007, p. 216 (Routledge/Taylor & Francis)).

Since the original feminine Greek noun has at least two separate spellings neither can be treated as corrupt, therefore I would regard the determination of Calidris as feminine (e.g. H&M4, vol. 1, p. 211) as safe and acceptable.

 

[l_raty]

Thanks James.
That's it, then--the inconsistency is in the original sources, rather than a modern alteration of the spelling. (Obviously, I had always overlooked this varia lectio up to now. Yet, if the sources are inconsistent, one may wonder why dictionaries make the situation looking consistent by always exclusively listing the word under sigma...)
Anyway, if there once was a single 'correct' spelling, it is evidently now lost. In English translations, the word indeed varies -- eg. "Then there is the scalidris" here, but "The calidris also" here. And "calidris" is to be found as far back as in manuscripts of the 15th C translation by Gaza.
Anyway, thanks again.

 

[Norbert R.]

Thank you for the interesting compilation of the Dunlin subspecies and names. I'd like to note that the author of the name schinzii is C. L. Brehm alone, not Brehm & Schilling. Although Schilling is a co-author of the book, it is clear from the text that C. L. Brehm is responsible for the description of this taxon and probably of most, if not all, other taxa in the Beiträge zur Vögelkunde 3 (according to Art. 50.1. of the Code [ICZN 1999]). The complete citation would thus be Tringa Schinzii C. L. Brehm in C. L. Brehm & Schilling, 1822 Beitr. Vögelk. 3, p. 355

 

[Taphrospilus]

● C. a. kistchinski TOMKOVICH 1986 = the Russian ornithologist Александр Александрович Кищинский (1937–1980), whose name is transcribed either as Alexander Aleksandrovich Kistchinsky alt. Kistchinski, Kichinski, Kischinsky or Kistchinskii (choose the one suitable for your language). For him see link (here, in Russian!).

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims:

Dunlin ssp. Calidris alpina kistchinskii Tomkovich, 1986
Alexander A. Kistchinski (1937–1980) was a Russian zoologist and ornithologist. He was at Central Laboratory for Nature Conservation, Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR, Moscow (1969). He wrote Waterfowl in North-east Asia (1973).

 

[l_raty]

Also about him: Kishchinsky, Alexander Alexandrovich: biography, works - otvex.com
("Kistchinski", where "щ" is rendered as "stch" is an unusual transliteration. "shch" is more usual.)