Artikel-Suche

Marti, C.

Aristoteles und die Zugvögel – was er schrieb und was nicht.

2016

113

309–320

Key words
(von 1994 bis 2006 vergeben)

Zugvögel, Überwinterung, Überwinterung

Schlagwort_Vogelart
(wissenschaftlich)

Hirundo rustica, Riparia riparia, Ptyonoprogne rupestris, Erithacus rubecula, Phoenicurus phoenicurus, Cuculus canorus, Accipiter gentilis, Accipiter nisus

Schlagwort_Vogelart
(deutsch)

Rauchschwalben, Uferschwalbe, Felsenschwalbe, Rotkehlchen, Gartenrotschwanz, Kuckuck, Habicht, Sperber

Griechenland

deutsch

Abhandlung

Aristotle and the migrating birds – what he wrote and what he did not. – In many books on bird migration or the history of ornithology you can find passages about the greek philosopher Aristotle stating that he thought swallows were hibernating in the mud, the Common Cuckoo transformed himself into a Northern Goshawk or a European Sparrowhawk and the Common Redstart into a European Robin. But Aristotle never pretended all these errors. He wrote that swallows had been found without any feathers wintering in cavities, but the myth of swallows wintering in the mud or at the bottom of lakes is much younger. Aristotle starts the section about the transmutation of the Cuckoo with «It is said that...» and he lists the arguments against this theory; apparently he did not believe in it. The Greek names Erithakoi and Phoinikuroi from «The History of Animals» of Aristotle have been used by Linné for the scientific nomenclature of the European Robin and the Common Redstart respectively. However, we do not know which bird species or which stage of moult of a certain species Aristotle meant.