Book Review – Mrs Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Name
Posted: May 10, 2019 Filed under: Birding | Tags: Birding, history, Ornithology Leave a commentFirst published in Indian Birds: Journal of South Asian Ornithology.
The renowned British natural history writer and television producer, Stephen Moss, takes readers through, what can most succinctly be described as, a history of humanity’s interactions with avifauna. The intriguing title of the book itself deserves note, but we’ll come to that a little later. Right from the days of onomatopoeic names, names based on colour and other prominent physical features, to the colonial-era race for eponymous names, to the current debates on fairer, more modern and international naming conventions, Moss leads readers through a great sweep of time and straddles the history of science, natural history, and even linguistics. While this is the broad scope of the book, there are absorbing asides that will interest not only the ornithologist or the seasoned birder, but also the uninitiated.
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