The etymology of the word vulgar is a little disappointing.

Today's animal, the European starling, their binomial scientific name, their species name, is sternus vulgaris.

Sternus just means starling. You can't complain about that. But vulgaris translates as common.

The modern word, vulgar, which is unambiguously negative, derives directly from the Latin vulgaris.

Vulgar means unrefined. It means unsophisticated. It means gross or rude.

I don't like reading into

etymology too much. I think you can end up in a lot of weird places if you do, but clearly there is

some snobbery here, some association between the common and the negative. And I think that

association remains. I think that association remains.

I think people really do turn their nose up at common things.

Maybe it's just a matter of supply and demand, increase the supply, you reduce the demand.

But it seems like more than that.

It seems like when you get to a certain level of supply of abundance, the demand becomes negative. People are

repulsed. But this is stupid. You know what common animals are from an evolutionary perspective?

They're the winners. Seriously, I mean this. There is almost no other reasonable metric for success in nature.

If your species is absolutely everywhere, your species is extremely well evolved. And conversely,

if you're going extinct, if you're rare, well, I mean, I'm not putting a normative value on it.

I love rare animals, but really, being rare, well, I mean, I'm not putting a normative value on it. I love rare animals, but really,

being rare is nothing to brag about. Today, I'm going to tell you about a quote-unquote

winner. The European starling, sternus vulgaris, an animal that has intelligence on par with your pet dog,

an animal with abilities that will absolutely amaze you.

An animal that performs behaviors, scientists still have yet to understand.

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