To add a layer in the choice of bird names, here is a very recent (4 days
old) preprint titled "Global inequity in scientific names and who they
honor":
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2020/08/10/2020.08.09.243238.full.pdf
Josée
______________________________________________
Josée Rousseau
PhD Candidate, Dept. Forest Ecosystems and Society
Oregon State University, Corvallis OR
josee.rousseau@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(541) 286-8617
On Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 10:30 AM Tom Crabtree <tc@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
And if the AOS were really concerned about political correctness, why
didn’t they rename the longspur to what it was called by the Plains Indians
long before it was “discovered” by McCown?
*From:* obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On
Behalf Of *larspernorgren
*Sent:* Friday, August 14, 2020 3:04 AM
*To:* Obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [obol] Changing names
The French Revolution of 1789 and the October Revolution of 1917 were
accompanied by extensive name changing, head rolling, indescribable
hypocrisy. When the AOS changes a name it seems to be driven by the desire
to make it as clunky and boring as possible. There are 450,000 words in
the Oxford English Dictionary but l get the impression the AOS has
consciously limited itself to an official choice of 200 or so.
"Thick-billed Longspur" has all the charm one anticipates from the
quarter master's list of nuts and bolts or the pen of a low level
apparatchik. There was a time when the AOU(predecessor to the AOS) had
official English names for subspecies. The Wilson's Warbler nesting in
western Oregon was "Golden Pileated Warbler". Isn't that an improvement on
"Black-capped Warbler" ?
Of course some will complain that they don't know what a pileus is.
Keep it simple, call it a cap. But almost everyone is walking around with a
phone that's also a camera and a dictionary. The human population is
rapidly aging and benefits from mental stimulus.
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
