[TN-Bird] A Records Committee Question/Puzzle

I was recently perusing the antiquated taxonomy of my personal NA life
list,  and thought it would interesting to compare it with the species
listed on the ABA current Checklist.   I had never done this before, and was
hoping to find some "splits" I was not aware of.
Well, I noticed that one species I had seen many years ago was not on the
ABA list; that being Caribbean Coot.  On business travel in the early '80s
to Tennessee (Chattanooga), I was prompted to go see the Caribbean Coot at
Chickamauga Lake, which I did, and noted it on my list.  Apparently most
birders in TN saw it too:

http://www.tnbirds.org/MigrantOnline/V053/V053081-082.pdf

So, back then, I went home with a new life bird and never thought about it
again, till yesterday.  When I saw that the ABA didn't list the bird, I did
some internet sleuthing and found this (see p. 5 of 7):

http://www.aba.org/checklist/ccr1991.pdf

It appears that the ABA decided in 1991 that the Caribbean Coot records in
the U.S. were ALL bogus, so they took it off their list.

So, my question is: was the coot at Chickamauga in the early '80s determined
to be something else (American Coot?) or was it a victim of the summary
dismissal of all the other Carib. Coot records?

Thanks.

Bates Estabrooks
Anderson County


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