I suppose it arose out of the bird’s dark grey and black face resembling a coal-miner’s blackened face (?) but have never seen it written, apart from gould’s notes that the term “miner” came from Tasmania originally. Anyone seen anything written? Also for such a common bird, I’ve not seen much aboriginal material, either names or folklore about it….
A couple of us have been developing the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noisy_Miner
Cas
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Hi Philip, A lot of early and later Australian settlers and explorers had had Indian experiences, and they would have noticed Common Mynahs. Steamers on their way to Australia or on their way Home usually called at Colombo or Bombay, and people went ashore to see the sights and get away from the bustle, noise and mess of coaling anyway.
Salim Ali’s ‘Book of Indian Birds’ calls it Indian Myna – in Hindi ‘Desi Myna’- with an accent on the e in Desi and the a in Myna, indicating a lengthened syllable – which is why I add an h to the bird, to remind people that it should be pronounced with a final ‘ah’, not an indeterminate ‘uh’. I think Kipling spells it Mina – can’t be bothered checking it on a hot afternoon.
To return to the Noisy Miners – today we saw one apparently wallowing in dust at the foot of a gate-post at Banyule Flats. It appeared to be dust-bathing, or even maybe anting. I saw it pick an ant from the post, but after it flew there were no ants visible in the Miner-sized dusty hollow it had dug out.
Best wishes, Anthea Fleming
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I have often wondered why Miners, particularly Noisy Miners, have that name. (The Noisy bit is obvious.) It could be confusion with the Indian bird. But I recall descriptions of gold-rush scenes back in the licence-hunting days. The human miners’ reaction to police was often to make a frightful noise to warn their mates, banging on panning-dishes and yelling “Joe!Joe!Joe,joe, joe!”. Which sounds just like the mobbing behaviour of the birds. This may be far-fetched. But I think it might fit. Plus the birds’ dirty faces. I must say that in the bush many people call them “Mickies” (why?) or “Soldier-Birds” – presumably because of their value as sentries, giving warning of a stranger approaching an isolated farm-house.
Anthea Fleming
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The link worked perfect for me and I found the write up on the Noisy Miner, a bird I see and hear every day, most informative.
Jude
When I went to the Wikipedia home page to search for Noisy Miner (as the link did not initially seem to work – I think it was just rather slow) I discovered the “Featured Article” was the Variegated Fairy-wren!
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Hi Cas,
HANZAB gives “Noisy or Southern Black-backed Minah or Mynah” as one of the common name synonyms. I would guess that the name “Miner” is a corruption of Minah/Mynah.
Personally, I quite like the alternative theory that they were named after the behaviour of a bunch of drunken gold diggers. Unfortunately the Minah/Mynah corruption is probably correct.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
I suppose it arose out of the bird’s dark grey and black face resembling a coal-miner’s blackened face (?) but have never seen it written, apart from gould’s notes that the term “miner” came from Tasmania originally. Anyone seen anything written? Also for such a common bird, I’ve not seen much aboriginal material, either names or folklore about it….
A couple of us have been developing the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noisy_Miner
Cas
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
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