Oh noo Mirasol, I asked you not to feel bad! How or why would you know there are several different things quite officially called blueberries? This sort of thing happens a lot! I was surprised by the Australians’ intense dislike of magpies, until I learned the bird called magpie is not the corvid we have at all, and is in fact a pretty nasty bird. The ones we have may cause some irritation occasionally, but they are nor harbingers of evil.
I noticed Mirasol's highbush blueberry, too - you beat me to the explanation! It's a sweet story, regardless - and unless you grow up picking the wretched things, you wouldn't know. I would very much be Tuuri, I spend many childhood days trailing along in my parents' wake, grazing instead of filling the small container I'd been given. They're so small, it takes forever (from a kid viewpoint) to even cover the bottom. Sad to say, little has changed, and I still have a habit of grazing rather than collecting for later!
I made friends with a British exchange student during university, and in spring they pointed out the birds hopping about on the lawn and asked in a tone of disbelief, "Is
that what you call a robin??" I am sympathetic to this view,
Turdus migratorius (even the name is awful) bears little resemblance to robin red-breast
. To me it reflects desperate homesickness - there are no robins in this hard new land, oh look, a bird with a red chest, let's call it a robin so that there are robins. Sort of like lonely sailors seeing manatees as mermaids!
