h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

But Suggest you change to (a less well known relative...> Better English. You could say "lesser known relative" but this sounds more clumsy.

Ok, I'll change it as you suggest BigAl

I did put rare at first, then went back and re-read info. it's rare for the blue breasted robin to spent winter in Britain, so changed rare to less known (or what-ever I put)

Emmily

from three to six
between three and six

Hi Trig

Sorry, but I can't find anywhere where I say 'from three to six' if you mean...

>"After laying a clutch of three-six pale blue eggs" that has already been discussed in posts #37 & 38

Emmily

A question...

Somewhere in this thread someone, (I think Gnomon/Gn) said punctuation was not normally used in Headers, are there exceptoins? as I think my header 'Robin redbreast or Robin Hood' should have a '?' on the end.?

Emmily

Is the blue throated robin a natural variation or is it a genetic mutation?

What the style guidelines at A266131 say is:

"There shouldn't be any colons, full stops or anything else after titles, headers, or subheaders of any kind"

I think you'd get away with a question mark.

Hi Emmily,

Sorry, this isn't really the place for that post. I was entering into the argument between Gnommon (or Gn, as he is now) and Jimster.

Quote:
I think it is wrong to say "between something-something". It has to be "between something and something". But I know Jimster disagrees with me on this one.



The hyphen in "something-something" is shorthand for the word . Therefore the combination "something-something" should be preceeded by , not .

(As I've remarked on another thread, I'm still trying to get the hang of plain-text punctuation. Those words in angle brackets should be in italics.)

This isn't very helpful to your entry so I'll shut up now.

TRiG.

If the bird is the Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica), as the picture suggests, then it's a different species (and more closely related to the Nightingale).

Ok, Thanks for letting me know what the post was about Trig. I'll be waiting with interest, to see whether the Sub-editor that gets this entry will change that, or leave it as it is.


It is indeed 'Luscinia svecica' Jb according to RSPB; blue throated robin, was it's old name, it's now known as Bluethroat. I have changed the name, and the link in the entry. RSBP also refers to bluethroat as extremely rare, so I may change 'less well known' to rare.

Sorry about my partnrer 'Visitor to planet earth' he thinks he's funny keep changing title to Engllish Robin...I've told him to pack it in..

Emmily

I was wondering to which picture was jb referring - the one on TV?

Ah, found it - on Emmily's link.

Hi Emmily,

I've just written a Guide Entry on Mulled Wine. In doing so, found this Wassailing song about the Robin Redbreast.

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5567/wassong.html#Awassail

I've tried that link a couple of times BigAl, it's not available at the monment, I'll try again later.

Emmily

Very timely and seasonal entry Emmily

You have a missing inverted comma here: nicknamed ‘robins’ or ‘redbreasts

"Males and females are indistinguishable"
Except to experts maybe? How about qualifying that with a 'virtually' or something similar?

"Robins prefer to make their neat cup-shaped nests, which are made out of moss and dead leaves, lined with hair and made by the female alone at ground level, using either the natural undergrowth, or artificial items such as discarded kettles and buckets."
I think we have a couple of sentences running on here. The purpose of putting words between commas, they way I have right here, is to use them as an aside, and if you take those words out of the sentence, the sentence should still work, but that isn't the case here with "which are made out of moss and dead leaves". How about something along the lines of 'Robin's nests are neat and cup-shaped, and are made of moss and dead leaves, lined with hair. They are made by the female, and are usually found at ground level, often in natural undergrowth, but sometimes in discarded items such as kettles and buckets'. I've added the 'usually' in there because we had a robin's nest in our garage when I was a kid, and it was high up in the beams. It was used each year - whether by the same robins or by a different pair I don't know for sure.

"Breeding time is the only time of the year in which robins will pair up, and tolerate each other and fiercely defend their nest"
Those two 'and's close together make the sentence awkward. How about 'Breeding time is the only time of the year in which robins will pair up and tolerate each other, fiercely defending their nest'


Scout

Hi Gosho

Must admit, I had to go get a before I read the post when I saw your name at the top. But was pleasently surprised that there were only a few minor points, which have all been sorted.

Emmily

If you're mentioning Robin Hood, it might be worth mentioning Robin Goodfellow, one of the names given to the pagan male god in British folklore - in fact the two are obviously closely related.

If you're mentioning Robin Hood, it might be worth mentioning Robin Goodfellow, one of the names given to the pagan male god in British folklore - in fact the two are obviously closely related.

A quick search turned up this article from a slightly unlikely source, but I'm sure that if you have more patience than me you can find something more detailed. I've yet to find anything connecting the bird with the name Robin and the mythology, though.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art21785.asp

Posted twice and still forgot the link!