Re: The long neck of the giraffe: a just-so story

On Sun, 03 Sep 2006 05:52:46 -0700, TomS wrote:

"On Sat, 02 Sep 2006 20:15:40 GMT, in article
<pan.2006.09.02.20.15.17.473578@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Mark Isaak stated..."

Nilgai. Its scientific name, Boselephas tragocamelus, gives a good
description of it; it translates literally as "cow-deer goat-camel."

How silly of me not to have thought of that!

And now we should hear from a certain poster to t.o how "nilgai" is
not a "common English name".

By the way, why isn't "Boselephas" literally "cow-elephant"?

Probably. But I misspelled the word. It should be Boselephus, which
comes from _elephos_, which is Greek for deer.

--
Mark Isaak eciton (at) earthlink (dot) net
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of
the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are
being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and
exposing the country to danger." -- Hermann Goering

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