Sightseeing birds

[Silver]

Hi,

I wonder if I can use “sightseeing birds” in the following context; I made up the term myself.

Peacock is a kind of sightseeing birds.

What I want to say is that peacock is not edible or for hunting, but for appreciation. I thought of the term when I saw many parrots in the park imitating people speak, and I wrote the sentence.

Thoughts:

I think it works, do you agree?

Thanks a lot

 

[JamesM]

Your sentence communicates that peacocks like to go sightseeing, which is not your intent, as I understand it.

A sightseeing tourist is not a tourist we go to see. It's a tourist that goes to see sights.

"The peacock is a kind of ornamental bird" might get the idea across that they are not useful for anything but decoration.

 

[Silver]

Thanks a lot, James, for pointing out my mistakes and your recommendation of a better sentence.

 

[ewie]

That's the word I'd use too, Silver: The peacock is a purely ornamental bird

 

[tehtmc]

The peacock is a purely ornamental bird.
The peacock is reared for ........(?)

I know 'sightseeing' is not appropriate. What is the word?

 

[ewie]

Ornament [neutral] / show [slightly pejorative]

 

[tehtmc]

for its beauty?

 

[PaulQ]

Other than "The peacock is reared for sale" the structure "is reared for" does not really work with peacocks/peahens. (The meat is virtually inedible.)

We would say something like, "People buy peacocks because they are supposed to look good wandering around a garden." or more formally "People buy peacocks for aesthetic reasons."

 

[ewie]

"The peacock is bred for ornament."

 

[PaulQ]

Wouldn't you "buy" peacocks for ornament, as breeding presupposes you have already at least 2 peafowl that you bought other than for ornament?

 

[ewie]

"The Aberdeen Angus is bred for its succulent meat."

I suppose peacocks long ago reached the end of the line when it comes to ornamental inutility, though, i.e. people don't technically breed them for ornament any more ... perhaps The peacock is now bred purely as an ornament.

Or, as Tehtmc suggests, The peacock is now bred purely for its beauty.

I don't have the same pedantic squeamishness as you, Mr Q, about the verb breed loosely meaning 'produce' rather than 'put male and female together to produce offspring'.

 

[PaulQ]

An imaginative defence Mr E...

Hi,

I wonder if I can use “sightseeing birds” in the following context; I made up the term myself.

Peacock is a kind of sightseeing birds.

No, that doesn't work: "Peacocks are an attraction for visitors/tourists."

 

[Silver]

Happy New Year, James, Paul and E.

I have a new question. In many hotels here, the owner feed koi carps, obviously, this kind of fishes is not edible, too. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not sure whether people eat peacock meat here, but once a doctor from Fu dan University wrote in her diary that she ate seagulls and some other animals, also, people here eat pangolins. The peacock raised in the enclosure is for sale, but it doesn't say people don't eat it.

My question:

Koi carp is a kind of ornamental fish.

Does it work? Koi carp is mainly for "sightseeing", people go there and appreciate it and leave, or sometimes like Silver does, throwing some bread to them.

 

[Glenfarclas]

I've never heard the term "koi carp" used, only "koi"; and I would take that word as plural: "Koi are an ornamental fish." Yes, "ornamental fish" is completely correct.

 

[Darkicity]

I would use aesthetic instead of sightseeing as I feel it is more precise

 

[Silver]

Thanks a lot, Glen.

Hmmm, I've heard a native speaker (BE) use "koi carp" to distinguish it from "carp", and Wikipedia has something about these two types of fishes.

Thanks a lot.

< New question removed. Please look at previous threads on the plural form 'fishes'. Cagey, moderator. >

 

[ewie]

Happy New Year, Silver. I'd treat koi (carp) pretty much like peacocks:

Koi (carp) are an ornamental fish
Koi (carp) are bred for ornament
Koi (carp) are bred purely for their beauty
Koi (carp) are bred purely to be looked at

The term koi carp is common enough in BrE

 

[Myridon]

The term koi carp is common enough in BrE

That page uses "koi carp" 5 times while using "koi" by itself 33 times.

 

[JulianStuart]

Not all carp are the "ornamental" ones. The Japanese word for common carp is koi, and the short word can also be used for those bred specifically to enhance colour mutations and combinations. Those are specifically referred to as nishikigoi, but even in Japan they are called koi when the context is clear So an English site is likely to specify koi carp to distinguish the coloured ones from the "plain" ones, but once the context is clear thay can simply use koi. (It's a lot easier to say, even for Japanese, who know how to pronounce the longer version Also, koi can be quite happily used for singular or plural, as the Japanese would).

I, too, favour the tag "ornamental"

 

[ewie]

That page uses "koi carp" 5 times while using "koi" by itself 33 times.

I did say 'common enough', Myri, which is to say 'fairly common'