And if a UK immigrant named the American bird, it must have been before the widespread introduction of eyeglasses.
There are a fair few species in the world called robins now, on the basis (of course) of having a red breast (or possibly being related to a red-breasted bird). My
Complete Book of Australian Birds
lists over 15 native species called robins on that continent alone. (It also records that in the 1860s, an unsuccessful attempt was made to introduce the European robin. And that we have an escaped population of ostriches north of Port Augusta, that's survived from the 1870s. There you go.)
Then there's the famous white squirrels, most of whom seem to have dark eyes and aren't albinos.
I have photos of an albino squirrel we saw in Hershey, PA. (Just checked it - pink eye and all.) Had to chase it halfway round Zoo America to get the shot. We get black squirrels around my apartment block - they seem stroppier than the normal grey ones.
Boston is not blessed with the cool black squirrels, but some of the greys have reddish tails and occasionally a weird red stripe down the middle of their backs. Maybe English red squirrels are infiltrating.
Yup. I think they're sneaking in from Canada. I see them all the time when we camp in Maine, and I remember first seeing them when I was in Nova Scotia years and years ago.
Yes! We have red squirrels a-plenty here. None of those Squirrel-on-Steroids black ones. Another reason you have to move here and marry Elena's cousin, Fay.
Fifteen different sorts of robins?? Wow.
Saw a white--not albino--squirrel in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge. Didn't have a camera.
I have seen two white (not albino) squirrels in Somerville, many blocks apart so that I’m pretty sure they weren’t actually the same squirrel twice....
Yup. I think they're sneaking in from Canada.
ARRRRRRGH!!
t runs away screaming
AND they're watching Buffy RIGHT NOW! Canadians! Everywhere...Canadians!
Wait...my Mom is half-Canadian...which means I have unAmerican Canadian blood in me right now!
t more screaming
Well. Nothing wrong with being part Canadian. Mom was from Brooklyn. That counts for a lot. And everybody loves Canadians, on yeah...
t rocking back and forth
Lived in Somerville for four years and never saw the snowy squirrels. Bleah.
We've finished watching Buffy, thank you very much.
Uhm...I was on an almost day-long job interview for a placement agency today, and was tested on six different kinds of software for five hours. And some of the tests were for software I'd never really seen--three or four year old versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark--that didn't at all match what I'd just learned. And I spent all last week studying up on them so I'm tired and loopy. It's not showing, is it?
Whew. Thank god.
t hysterical again
ARRRRGH! The Canadians are here!!
t looks at name of thread
Oh. Right.