From Captain and Sergeant to Bluebell and Buttercup, iPad and Snapchat, the names given to animals are a sign of our times.
Long-time fans of The Archers might recall that Dan Archer’s last pair of working horses were called Blossom and Boxer and devotees of BBC sitcom Steptoe and Son will no doubt remember that the horse pulling the rag-and-bone cart went by the name of Hercules—a nod towards Classical mythology.
In the farmyard, long before cattle were required by government legislation to wear ID numbers—and thereby become known only by their number to those in the dairy— they had far more charming names, often connected with the flora of the meadows in which they grazed. Thus it was that the ubiquitous Daisy would respond happily to her name when it came to milking time, along with Buttercup, Bluebell, Eglantine (an old French name for sweet briar) and Jasmine.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 1, 2017-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 1, 2017-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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Let's get to the bottom of this
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Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds