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Call a Smeerp a Rabbit: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Fur the color of dead grass conceals a hard, scaly exoskeleton protecting this flesh-eater with few known predators. Its head is concealed by a split upper and lower jaw, and it is from between these that it keeps careful watch on prey through well protected sunken eyeholes."''|'''Feral ''Croc''''' bestiary entry, ''[[
It doesn't look like a duck, act like a duck, or quack like a duck. But everyone around you ''insists'' it's a duck.
Just as [[Speculative Fiction]] authors like to [[Call a Rabbit
When used in non-visual media, the problem is that unless the author is very explicit right up front about the fact that the animal in question is ''quite different'' from what the word normally means, the reader may be hundreds of pages in before he runs across something that just doesn't make sense, which can be jarring. It shatters the [[Suspension of Disbelief]] when you have to suddenly change your mental image of the hero's faithful dog to include scales and a forked tongue.
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Then again, maybe the very first naturalists were just lazy. Or [[They Just Didn't Care|apathetic]].
The [[Inverted Trope|inverse]] of [[Call a Rabbit
{{examples}}
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** Admittedly, Griff is the only one to insist that the thing pulling his cart is a horse. It is lampshaded several times by the other characters.
*** That horse also has a trunk and makes a weird engine-like sound.
* ''Biomega'' features bizarre technorganic [[Big Creepy
* The [[Horse of a Different Color|"horseclaws"]] from ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of
* The Red Elk from [[Princess Mononoke]] does not resemble an actual elk or wapiti.
* Though the aliens of ''[[Sgt Frog]]'' do look somewhat amphibious, they are far closer to the standard [[Little Green Men]] than frogs.
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== Films -- Animation ==
* In ''[[Monsters, Inc.]].'', Mikey has an old stuffed animal--it's a cyclopean horned monster (like him) but with six legs. What does he call it? A "teddy bear".
** This is particularly weird, as it suggests the monsters have knowledge of Theodore Roosevelt.
** Not really, they could have picked up their knowledge of "teddy bears" from the children they scared.
*** [[Truth in Television]]: Small children tend to call any plush a "teddy bear", regardless of whether said plush looks anything like a bear. Even adults do it sometimes -- just check eBay.
** And Boo refers to Sulley as a kitty.
* The [[What Could Have Been|"lava whales"]] from Disney's ''[[Atlantis:
** Also, Atlantean wildlife in general.
*** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Modern science holds that whales actually evolved into their current state from--guess what--[[wikipedia:Pakicetus|large dog-like animals that look nothing like whales.]]
* Contrary to popular belief, ''actual'' Aracuan birds look absolutely ''nothing'' like the one seen in ''[[
* Most of the prehistoric animals from the ''[[Ice Age]]'' series films are all referred by the names of modern-day animals. For example, [[Panthera Awesome|Diego the Saber-toothed Cat]] is still referred as [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying|a tiger.]]
** To be fair, Sabre-toothed Tiger is a common name for his species, and their scientific name (Smilodon) doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
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* The "velociraptors" in [[Jurassic Park]] were larger and had heads of a different shape when compared to actual velociraptors. That is because they were actually based on a related predator, the Deinonychus. This happened because when the novel was written, it had been proposed that the ''Velociraptor'' family should include Deinonychus--and the film went with that even though the scientific community wrote it off before filming took place. A rather mild case of [[Did Not Do the Research]].
* The Lock Ness Monster from [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0760329/ The Water Horse], looks more like a kid friendly plesiosaur than a kelpie.
* Other than being simply labeled "Bugs" as a [[Fantastic Slur]] towards the chitinous alien invaders and their various castes in ''[[Starship Troopers (
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** The names of prehistoric animals crop up pretty often as well, but the notes in the back seem to indicate that these are not necessarily revived species (although the narrator seems to think they are) and might be whole new (but fairly similar) creatures.
* In [[Gene Wolfe]]'s ''Book of the Short Sun'' series, the "elephants" of Planet Blue apparently have two trunks.
* In the ''[[
** Treecats are sort of like domestic cats, sort of like ocelots, arboreal (as the name implies), intelligent, telepathic, and six-legged.
*** They're stated in text to have a feline-like head, a body like a weasel or ferret (60 centimeters long), and a prehensile tail that is carried rolled into a tube or flattened for gripping.
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* The "piggies" in ''[[Speaker For The Dead]]'' are (to grossly simplify things) tree-climbing, scaly sentient beings with ''somewhat porcine snouts'', by which, of course, the settlers of their planet chose to identify them. Of course, most of the Lusitanian lifeforms are given Portuguese "rabbit" names. For instance, the indigenous herd animals are called "cabra", Portuguese for goat, while the grass is "capim".
** And also from the [[Ender's Game]] series are the Formics, more generally known as the Buggers due to their resemblance to giant ants.
* Neal Stephenson's ''[[Anathem]]'' uses this, in addition to its inversion [[Call a Rabbit
* In the novelisation of ''[[Star Trek III:
{{quote| "I saw a cat once. It was digging through a garbage heap in a back alley on Amenhotep IX. I disliked it. Please explain the similarities between it and me."<br />
"All right... both of you were in the back alley, weren't you?" }}
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* The titular creature in Theodore Sturgeon's short story ''The Hurkle is a Happy Beast'' has got six legs, the middle pair of which is essentially a pair of prongs it can rock back and forth on, and turns invisible when anxious among other things. The author happily calls it a "kitten" anyway.
* Terry Jones' novelization of Douglas Adams' ''Starship Titanic'' opens with "'Where is Leovinus?', exclaimed the Gat of Blerontis, chief surveyor of the Northeast Gas District. 'No, I don't want another bloody fish-paste sandwich!'" The following paragraph explains that the terms "fish", "sandwich", "bloody", and "Northeast Gas District" are inexact approximations of alien terminology, before deciding to start over.
* The "Gin and Tonics" from ''[[The
** It's a reference to something that has got anthropologists and structural linguists very excited in the real world: that just about ''every'' culture that worked out how to distill drinkable ethyl alcohol on a widespread basis went on to name the resulting spirit "water of life" - whiskey, aquavit, vodka, ouzo, etc. (look them up!)
*** Not so mysterious, since alcohol kills germs and one of its main benefits in early cultures was that it could be imbibed without the health risks of drinking unpurified water.
** Also in ''Hitchhikers'', every Earth animal seems to have a "mega-" equivalent on Arcturus, including the Arcturan Megadonkey and the Arcturan Megacamel. There's even Arcturan Mega-Gin, an essential ingredient of the Pan-Galactic [[Gargle Blaster]], to go with all the Arcturan Mega-Critters. In accordance with this trope, it's worth noting that the Megadonkey, for instance, has six legs.
* The above-mentioned venomous, bipedal, reptilian "horses" are from [[Sheri S. Tepper]]'s novel ''Grass''. The novel specifically states they are nothing like Earth horses (nor are the creatures they hunt remotely like foxes), but for twisted plot-related reasons the (human) residents of Grass ride the "horses" to go "hunting" anyway.
* In [[Cordwainer Smith]]'s ''Instrumentality'' series, the inhabitants of Norstrailia have creatures which are ''bigger than houses'', completely immobile, and produce an immortality drug that makes the inhabitants filthy rich. The creatures are called "sheep".
** Well, they were brought to the planet as regular old sheep, then they [[Came Back Wrong|mutated...]]
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** There are also more classic examples--there are Safeholdian grasshoppers, narwhales, and sea cows. The grasshopper is a great example of this trope--the Safeholdian grasshopper can grow up to nine inches long and is carnivorous.
* A non-animal example from the ''[[Antares]]'' novels. Altan coffee is described as tasting very different from Terran coffee. It is made from a native plant that the original colonists decided was the best local substitute.
* [[
** There are carnivorous unicorns (more often called "One-Horns", but guess what unicorn means) in the ''Elvenbane'' series as well, along with mammalian shapeshifting superintelligent "dragons".
* Asimov's novel ''Nightfall'' is preceded by a forward explaining that the characters, creatures, etc., are technically alien, but would be described in Earth terms to avoid [[Call a Rabbit
* Potentially the [[Trope Namer]]: Mike Resnick's short story ''Stalking the Unicorn With Gun and Camera'' includes the following line: "A word of warning about the smerp: with its long ears and cute fuzzy body, it resembles nothing more than an oversized rabbit--but calling a smerp a rabbit doesn't make it one."
* In the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], one of Shub-Niggurath's titles is "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young". [[Eldritch Abomination|You'd be hard pressed to find anything less like a goat]].
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* Yulia Latynina's ''Inhuman'' features a character musing:
{{quote| The fact that "Eden" got into the Protection Services' hands was known to at least two dozen people. And as the old phrase goes, "What's known to two men is known to a pig". The colonel didn't understand how a "pig", a self-replicating Loellian strain of algae used for food for the poor sections of the empire, could know know anything at all, though, perhaps the word "pig" meant something different in the past. From this he figured that over the centuries pigs have changed quite a bit, while people didn't.}}
* In [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s story "The Wall of Darkness", Shervane and his father's traveling party includes "certain animals it is convenient to call horses".
* In [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s short story "Paradises Lost", the colonists of a new planet (who are just off the [[Generation Ship]] where they've lived for several generations) dub a certain kind of insect a "dog". They know it's not what the word originally referred to, but no one's ever seen a dog, so no one cares.
* In the [[Liaden Universe]], Borrill, Zhena Trelu's "dog" on Vandar, doesn't look anything like a "dog" as Val Con or Miri know them, but is called a dog by the narrative (and Val Con theorizes that it fills the same ecological/cultural niche on that world).
* Toto, the [[Small Annoying Creature|alien]] [[Ridiculously Cute Critter|pet]] in Helen Weinbaum's short story "Honeycombed Satellite," is a three-legged creature with a roughly tetrahedral body, a simian face, rabbit-like ears, and a habit of parroting any sound that he hears. He's also [[Bizarre Alien Biology|photosynthetic]]. The main characters nonetheless insist that he's a puppy.
* The clovers in ''[[Horton Hears a Who]]'' are all portrayed as being large, pink fluffy flowers.
** Which is what an actual clover flower looks like in real life. While most people associate "clovers" with the three or four leafed plants, there are pink and white flowers that grow in association with them.
* ''[[
* ''The Clockwork Rocket'' by [[Greg Egan]] takes place in a universe with entirely different laws of physics from our own. It still uses common words like "plant", "forest", and "wheat" to describe the things that are roughly analogous (never mind that plants gain energy by ''emitting'' light rather than absorbing it).
* Used to an extent in [[John Carter of Mars]]; Carter tends to describe the Martian fauna by comparing it to the closest Earth equivalent, but all these creatures ''do'' have their own names and are described up-front as being alien-looking. Interestingly, the novels use the terms "man" and "woman" to refer both to members of the various humanoid Martian subspecies as well as the decidedly ''non''-humanoid Green Martians.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* It happens from time to time on ''[[
** In ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', when discussing the [[Show Within a Show]] based on the stargate program, ''Wormhole X-Treme!'', a snap decision replaces an apple tree with "painted kiwis" because it's more spacey. The problem is the script now read ''"Nick walks into the garden of kiwi trees, says 'How like Eden this world is' and bites into a painted kiwi."''
== Religion ==
* In the ''[[
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' goes full circle from the real life example above, by presenting "sea lions" that are -- [[Exactly What It Says
** A similar treatment was given to Seawolves (an old term for pirates), spider-monkeys (they really look disturbing), and wolf spiders (who had wolf heads). However, since these are all cases of [[Exactly What It Says
* The ''[[Talislanta]]'' game flirts with this trope, featuring "equs" ([[Canis Latinicus|pseudo-Latin]] for "horse") as the most common riding beasts. Equs in Talislanta are reptile/mammal hybrids with claws, scales, manes... and (for the darkmane breed) a propensity toward foul language. Yep, the "horses" [[Sapient Steed|talk]].
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* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' plays with this trope. The Survivors avert [[Not Using the Zed Word]] hard, and call the zombies zombies. They give names like Witch, Hunter, and Smoker to various unique horrors ("special infected") which inhabit their world. Each special zombie has common features and distinct behaviors. They're also high priority targets and major threats. Survivors and players both use the common nicknames of the zombies to quickly identify them. Where this trope comes in is with the very prosaic names. A zombie which spits a glob of flesh-melting acid a hundred feet, allowing it to fill a room with deadly slime? Just call it "Spitter."
* Pictured above (from the [[Animated Adaptation]]): the Tiger from ''[[Monster Rancher]]'' isn't a tiger. It's a wolf. And even then, it's not even a normal wolf -- it has blue fur, a fluffy mane, and horns. Cue much confusion for the players.
** [[Adaptation Displacement|Ah, that's right, there was a video game!]] The anime made it fairly explicit that it was a wolf ''named'' Tiger -- whose brother was [[Exactly What It Says
** For the record, the name is a translation error. The original name ''sounded'' a great deal like "tiger" and so it stuck.
*** If translated right, the name (Taiga) would even reference his [[An Ice Person|ice abilities]].
** Baku also doesn't have a strong resemblance to the tapir it's named after (or even the mythical creature the tapir is named after in Japanese), looking more like a giant plush dog.
* [[Starcraft|Starcraft 2]] gives us Zerg "Roaches", 10 foot long acid spitting organic tank beasts.
* The Frog and Rat creatures from obscure action-adventure game ''[[Sphinx and
* Due to [[Cultural Translation]], Kapp'n the cabbie/bus driver/boat rower from ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' is called a snapping turtle, and [[Inconsistent Dub|occasionally]], a parrot. He's actually the mythological Japanese Kappa, as is made obvious by his name. Tom Nook from the same game also suffers from a tanuki-to-raccoon species change.
* The rats in ''[[Plane Shift]]'' have one eye.
* Giraffes in ''[[
** Every last large cat species in the game, from lions to tigers to panthers, also have large saber teeth.
*** Heck, very nearly every animal of ''every'' type in the series has horns, tusks, saber teeth, or some combination of the above. In particular, [[Morphic Resonance|no matter their form]], Tauren druids are [[Just for Pun|always horny.]]
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** Note that the monkey-like species is called "pyjak" in the second game. They are very common on the planet Tuchanka, homeworld of the krogan. However, Wrex will never actually correct you in the first game when you refer to them as monkeys.
*** While they are common, they aren't native. Some traders left a bunch of them at port, and even the [[Death World|voracious Tuchanka ecosystem]] hasn't managed to stamp them out.
* The "[http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/bestiary.html?fmob=938 Raptors]" in ''[[
* ''[[
** And alligators do not have a three-part jaw. Or fur.
** The bestiary entries also seem to think that carnivorous horses with tentacles are perfectly normal. Or chibi-style rabbits with feathery ears (some of them even have four ears) and a fluffy ball-like tail which is about the size of their body.
* This has been going on since the first ''[[
* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'''s demons are giant anthropomorphic birds. That have [[Detached Sleeves]] and dance around. Some of them throw oversized shuriken. Not what most people think of when they hear the word 'demon'.
* Rabites from ''[[Secret of Mana]]'' are more [[Waddling Heads]] with somewhat lagomorphesque faces and fluffy tails.
* Played with in ''[[
** Although it is stated that Protozoans begin life as single-celled creatures, and periodically move up through various [[Evolutionary Levels]]. Noishe will apparently become a humanoid someday.
*** Noishe is called protozoan because of its legend. It is the "first animal".
** They also have a large, furry, bipedal and somewhat troll-like monster that could legitimately have been called a Bigfoot, a Troll, or possibly a Bugbear. It's simply called a Bear. The [[Palette Swap]] of it, encountered later in the game, is an Egg Bear, compounding the nonsense.
** The sequel: ''Dawn of the New World'' actually justifies this by introducing a large canine monster that bears a strong resemblance to Noishe... then it introduces the Griffin as a monster with only two legs and a wolf-like head.
** Likewise, the "Ligers" in ''[[
** If you know Scottish mythology Noishe '''is''' a (type of mythological) dog. His name is pronounced nearly identical to "Cu Sith" (Pronounced Cu Shee), and he matches the physical description of one.
* The "rats" in ''[[
* ''[[Half-Life]]'': Antlions! The only example in a series full of alien creatures. Also, the antlion Hive Guardian is referred to by the vortigaunts as the "myrmidont," which is derived from real-life antlions' scientific name (Myrmeleontidae). Also, they have a King instead of a queen, for variety.
** Meanwhile the series's iconic [[Personal Space Invader|headcrabs]] look nothing like actual crabs.
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** The flightless birds on Reach are named moa, after the extinct real-life species. The latter were 12 feet tall and completely wingless, while the Reach birds are smaller and have rudimentary wings.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'': A bunch of goblins are knocking on our door riding beak-dogs? Okay, dogs with beaks ain't so bad -- Urist McHammerer, take 'em -- OH GOD, WHO LET THE VELOCIRAPTORS IN THE DOOR!?
** As this is simultaneously a mundane-sounding name for an exotic creature '''and''' an unusual name for an earthly creature, this doubles as [[Call a Rabbit
* Whatever those things are in ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'', they are most certainly not horses.
* Not a definite case, since no pictures or descriptions are provided, but some of the creatures in ''[[Rogue (
* Common in older JRPGs due to name space constraints and/or poor translation combined with [[Palette Swap|the reuse of sprites]]. ''[[Final Fantasy Legend]]'' features the Wolf and Jaguar, but both monsters use the same graphic of a tiger. OK, so at least one of those is another type of big cat.
* Most ''[[
** Some of these are particularly stupid, like Sandslash being called a mouse when it is clearly a pangolin.
*** The most ridiculous of these would likely be Blastoise, a giant turtle, being referred to as a shellfish.
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** Although the games never state it, Tyranitar is based on a [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]. Despite the fact that, besides maybe the head (scaled down quite a lot), it looks nothing like a T-rex.
* In Digimon the obviously rabbit Patamon is called a mouse, as well. Then the rodent [[Cartoon Creature]] is called Opossumon and it behaves like a cat.
* In ''[[Mabinogi (
* Maggots (two-headed crawling demons) and Ticks (exploding [[Giant Spider|giant spiders]]) in ''[[Doom]] 3''.
** The entire franchise has examples of this. "Imps" for leathery spiny fire breathing humanoids? "Demons" for monsters like rampaging shaved gorillas? Most of the higher level monsters had fairly unusual names, especially in ''Doom II'' but the novels played this trope to the hilt, throwing in "Pinkies" and "Pumpkins", along with other non-animal designations of "Clydes", "Bonies" and "Fire eaters" amongst others.
* Most ''youkai'' in [[Touhou Project|Gensokyo]] appear as if they were ''youkai'' in stats only. Check out the [[Cute Monster Girl]] entry.
* ''[[Yoshis Island]]'' has Poochy, a sort of... canine/amphibian hybrid thing with huge lips, no ears and a tongue nearly the size of the rest of its body. It's simply referred to as a "dog" in-game.
* The Barracuda Sharks in ''[[
* [[Septerra Core]]. Certain monsters - especially Thunder Cats (which, in spite of vaguely feline gait and ecosystem role, look more like stone rhinos) and various things marked as spiders and beetles which look very little like their Earth equivalents.
* The Lemmings in ''[[Lemmings]]'' actually look more like humanoid green-haired creatures (resembling a mix between [[Fraggle Rock|a Fraggle]] and [[Phineas and Ferb|Ferb]]) than actual lemmings, which are rodents. The only similarity is the fact that both actually tend to walk off cliffs to their deaths in huge groups. [[Critical Research Failure|Apart from real lemmings, that don't.]]
* Several enemies in the ''[[
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Last
** White Noise (an aged Anyr hacker) gets called a horse pretty often too, [[I Am Not Weasel|but he objects to that. Loudly.]]
* ''[[
** That's Jeremy "the creature that nature never intended" actually. Although, given his behavior, he might as well be a cat. This might actually be [[Call a Rabbit
*** [[Word of God]] claims half-cat, half-hedgehog.
* The pet "bird" of Spatch II in ''[[Rice Boy]]''. Has no beak (but a small forked horn instead), neither arms nor wings, sits on his swing like a human, and says: "Fuh!"
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* ''Sythyry's Journal'' references a character's "horse" a few times, then makes some comments about said horse pecking at people with its beak.
* ''[[Spec World]]'', naturally, [http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0000265/Spec/index.html has some fun with this]. Many of the animals ''look'' an awful lot like Earth animals but [[Shown Their Work|are biologically very different]]. Thus we have Unmice, Notacoons, Toothawks, and Baygulls among others. They're just as likely to name animals after fictional species and characters, however.
* ''The [[
* [http://nequ.deviantart.com/art/A-Lykan-1-of-3-253662156 This series] zig-zags furiously. It takes place in a distant future where humanity as we know it doesn't exist. While the space weredog member of the duo [[Call a Rabbit
== Western Animation ==
* "Penguins" in ''[[
** There's also the sky bison/wind buffalo, which look like giant, six-legged bovines, which brings up the question of how they fly. The answer is that they were the original Airbenders, like badger-moles were the original Earthbenders.
** Momo, who looks like a mix between a monkey and a bat is just a "lemur" in the series, and a lemur-''bat'' in [[The Last Airbender
* The "Hornet" monsters (also called "Frelion") in ''[[
* Cerbee from ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. Everyone refers to him as a dog. He barks like a dog, is [[Greek Mythology|named after a dog]], and does several dog things, but he's a small, one eyed horned monster who, other than having four legs, looks little like a dog.
* Some of [[Lilo and Stitch: The Series|Mrs. Hasagawa's]] pet "cats" are actually aliens.
* In ''[[Quasi
* Arguably the case of the creepy staring horse from ''[[
* The dogs in ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'' look nothing like dogs at all.
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* The ''tanuki'' suffers from a bit of this, often being misidentified as a raccoon or a badger. Its name in English is even raccoon-dog (they're canids).
* When Chinese explorer Zheng He brought a live giraffe back from Africa in 1414, Chinese scholars identified it with a mythological beast called the ''[[Unicorns|qilin]]'', based on some superficial similarities between the two. Post-15th-century representations of qilin in art look a lot more like giraffes than the original creature, a chimera with the head and horns of a dragon and the body of a horse. In Japan and Korea, giraffes are still known as "kirin" to this day.
** Hence, the [[
* In a similar case, the Japanese name for the tapir is "baku", after a dream-eating mythical creature that it resembles. Most modern portrayals of the mythical baku are simply tapirs outright, only with the abilities of the mythical creature.
* Hares aren't considered part of the group of genera as other rabbits, though they're all still in the same family--hares don't burrow and aren't born blind or hairless. That means, technically, "jackrabbits" (another name for hares) is a misnomer, but that's just [[Incredibly Lame Pun|splitting hares]].
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** Subverted with the American Goldfinch and other goldfinch species found in the United States -- they share a genus, ''Carduelis'', with the European Goldfinch much as the American Robin and Eurasian Blackbird are both in the genus ''Turdus''.
** New World sparrows are in the family Emberizidae like Old World buntings (and a handful of New World ones like the Snow Bunting) rather than Passeridae as with Old World species. However, some New World emberizids [[Take a Third Option]] and are called juncos or towhees. In turn, most New World buntings are actually in the cardinal family, Cardinalidae.
** This occasionally happens outside the Americas as well. The [[wikipedia:Dunnock|Dunnock]] is sometimes referred to as the Hedge Sparrow, but it is not in the family Passeridae as true Old World sparrows such as the House Sparrow (which eventually ended up among the Old World species introduced to North America) are. However, one that stuck was the Java Sparrow, which is actually an estrildid finch (family Estrildidae), though to be fair estrildid finches are fairly close relatives of Old World sparrows, and it's possible that it used to be considered to be a true sparrow but changed families much as how the European Robin changed families. In addition to their relationship with estrildid finches, Old World sparrows are also more closely related to weavers (family Ploceidae) than New World sparrows, and older sources often placed them in the same family (occasionally leading to cases of [[Call a Rabbit
** Similarly to the Dunnock, grackles ([[Running Gag|yet another group of members of the family Icteridae]]) are often informally referred to as crows in parts of the Americas that do not have true crows. However, American species of true crows, such as the common American Crow, are in the same genus as Old World crows such as the Carrion Crow (the same genus also includes ravens and other species such as the Rook).
** The now-extinct Great Auk was the ''original'' penguin and is a flightless member of the family Alcidae, which also includes extant species such as auklets and puffins. Then this trope was applied to some Southern Hemisphere birds that resembled it but aren't close relatives of the auk family and the rest is history.
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