Informal poll (birds)

[colkitto]

>
> This makes sense if the US usage is "hawk" and the UK usage is
> "buzzard"
> -- why would a lexicographer invent a US term for a UK bird, or vice
> versa? Or do American birders "misname" the local birds when they cross
> the pond?

It may be the other way round, in the sense of English-speaking settlers 
"misnaming" the local wildlife.  American robins, for instance, have a 
general resemblance to British robins (who really fit the appellation 
"redbreast"), and doubtless this is why they were so named.

The phenomenon of naming new forms of wildlife after already well-known ones 
is not just confined to English-speaking settlers in America.  I remember 
that in Alberta Ukrainians used "izh" for porcupines, as there were no 
hedgehogs in Alberta.

In Australia the situation can be even worse.  Cf. the lines from the 
folksong

To drive away the wolves and tigers
Upon Van Diemen's Land.

where humans are actually more closely related to "wolves" and "tigers" than 
either are to the animals mentioned in the song, although the latter did 
acquire the names..

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