The Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the Solega A Linguistic Perspective

117

Table 4.5 (continued)

English name Scientifi c name

Perceptually salient

features

Possible perceptual

reasons for lack of name

Olive-backed

Pipit

Anthus hodgsoni Medium sized,

common

Well camoufl aged

Tree Pipit A. trivialis Medium sized,

common

Well camoufl aged

Taddyfi eld Pipit A. rufulus Medium sized,

common

Well camoufl aged

Long-billed Pipit A. similis Medium sized,

common

White-rumped

Shama

Copsychus

malabaricus

Common, medium

sized, distinctive

colouration, loud,

distinctive call

Not easily seen

Eurasian

Blackbird

Turdus merula# Medium sized,
common in evergreen
and moist forest,
glossy black plumage
Birds not included in the picture elicitation task are marked with an asterisk; # after the scientifi c
name indicates a locally monotypic genus. The scientifi c identifi cations are from Grimmett and
Inskipp [ 168 ]. Any bird up to the size of a sparrow is characterized as ‘small’. Birds around the size
of a myna are called ‘medium’, while larger birds are called ‘large’

Fig. 4.2 Distribution (in %) of monotypic and polytypic genera among the named and unnamed
birds of Tables 4.1 and 4.5 respectively. The columns labelled ‘genera’ indicate counts of genera
from the two groups; the columns labelled ‘species’ show counts based on total species number.
For instance, Sitta frontalis and Sitta castanea from Table 4.1 would be counted as 1 genus (for the
fi rst column, ‘Named—Genera’), but as two species (for the second column, ‘Named—Species’)
under the category ‘polytypic’. Previously published in [ 167 ]

4.4 The Role of Perceptual Salience