<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Ludlow Griscom’s article is interesting, and makes some good
points, but it essentially boils down to two thoughts:<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Perfection is impossible as we don’t – and probably will never - know a comprehensive and accurate taxonomy of birds. <span> </span>Both scientific understanding and common
naming are so muddled as to be beyond repair.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Birders can learn Linnean binomials as well as they can
learn English “common names.”<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">As to the first, I totally agree.<span> </span>One thing biology has proven over the past
century is that a “correct” taxonomy of Aves – or any class – is a constantly
shifting target.<span> </span>Any class is a tree
with many tangles, or worse.<span> </span>Olympic
Gull is but one example.<span> </span>Even a species
like Chat is in some respects anomalous.<span>
</span>“Best current judgement” is a useful criterion – “perfect” is not.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">As to whether birders can or should learn and use Linnean
binomials, common English language names are for more than avocationally intense
birders.<span> </span>A much wider audience is
involved here.<span> </span>For example, I frequently
hear “backyard birders” and others refer to our local jay as a “blue jay”
rather than Steller’s Jay.<span> </span>They never
heard of Georg Steller, don’t care, and just know the jay had a blue body.<span> </span>But Black-headed Jay would be a name they are
more likely to remember and use.<span> </span>Cyanocitta
stelleri is gibberish and tells them nothing.<span>
</span>And it doesn’t tell us serious birders much either – it’s just the same name
with more syllables for "jay".<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Many people, including most birders, I suspect, are always
going to use English language names for birds. Many of us started as kids
finding birds interesting; “Mom, I saw a jay” versus “Mom, I saw a Cyanocitta.”<span> </span><span> </span>We can
make common bird names more friendly, and sometimes more enlightening, while
understanding that “always getting it right” is aspirational.<span> <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span>Chris Kessler,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span>Seattle<br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span></span></p>
</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 2:38 PM Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney <<a href="mailto:festuca@comcast.net">festuca@comcast.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt">Bob Righter from Denver posted this on the Colorado birding chat group. I thought it might be an interesting read for those of us who are 'anxiously' awaiting action from the AOS on revising the Common Names of birds that are named after People.</span>
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt">"From chatter on the internet emerges an interesting article by Ludlow Griscom written in 1947 “Common Sense in Common names.” Griscom, was a power house in the early 1900s and greatly influenced Roger Tory Peterson. The full article can be accessed through Google. I’ve taken the liberty of just featuring the last paragraph which I thought was the most poignant to our conversation on Bird Names:</span>
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt"><br>"NO “simple and logical principles” for vernacular nomenclature can be formulated. There are far too many birds; their variations, relationships, and ranges are not simple or logical. Their habits and habitats change from season to season, from one section of the continent to another, from century to century. Which season, which habitat, which section of the country is to be the basis for the “appropriate or associative” name?"</span>
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt">The article can be read at <a href="https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v059n03/p0131-p0138.pdf" target="_blank">https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v059n03/p0131-p0138.pdf</a></span>
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt">Enjoy!</span>
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt"> - Jon. Anderson</span>
</div>
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">
<span style="font-family:helvetica;font-size:12pt"> Olympia</span>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
Tweeters mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Tweeters@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">Tweeters@u.washington.edu</a><br>
<a href="http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><span>"moderation in everything, including moderation"<br>Rustin Thompson<br></span></div>