a fun article on bird nomenclature
- From: "Howard Lester" <hlester@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 08:28:25 -0700
This appeared in today's Berkshire Eagle (Massachusetts) newspaper:
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/otheropinions/ci_3464855
What's in a name
By Clellie Lynch
Thursday, February 02
EAST CHATHAM, N.Y.
AFTER A number of years of observing and identifying birds, the
nomenclature is fast imprinted in memory by sound, by look and by behavior.
I automatically call the American robin (its proper name), a robin, the
great crested flycatcher, a cresty, and a Bonaparte's gull, a boney. We
reduce the familiar birds to abbreviated names or nicknames. Thus, the
mourning dove becomes the modo, the red-winged blackbird, the rwbb.
Yet each of these birds has not only a proper English name, but also a
high falutin' scientific name (Genus species) giving it a specific place in
the avian taxonomic world.
Who assigns these names? It all started with the brilliant Swede,
Linnaeus, who, in the 18th century, undertook the enormous task of
classifying the entire natural world. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing
in the early days of classification, but eventually a logical naming system
based on relationships and affinities evolved.
a..
The organizations now responsible for the accurate classification of
bird species are the AOU (American Ornithological Union) and the BOU
(British Ornithological Union), their job made more precise with DNA typing.
Many birds are named for physical appearance: pied-bill grebe, brown-headed
cowbird. Others are named for locality: Philadelphia vireo, Cape May
warbler; for habitat: marsh wren, pine warbler; for the food it eats:
goshawk (goose), gnatcatcher; for behavior: woodpecker, brown creeper or for
the sound it makes: trumpeter swan, chickadee. The AOU prefers descriptives
to people or place names - hence the northern oriole now includes the
Baltimore and Bullock's orioles.
Then there are a wide and varied group of birds named to honor a
person. Who are these exalted people? The first are the fathers of
ornithology, those 19th century men (invariably men) who with a bit of
scientific education, a bit of wealth, or a bit of time for exploring were
obsessed with birds, bird behavior, bird identification, bird history. These
are names we recognize: JJ Audubon, Audubon's warbler; Alexander Wilson,
Wilson's phalarope; Elliot Coues, Coues' flycatcher.
Looking through a checklist of North American birds, there are some
birds named for lesser-known explorers interested in natural history and
invariably skilled in the arts of gunning, collecting and taxidermy. But
these adventurers all had something in common: they were either friends,
correspondents or colleagues of Audubon.
Rev. John Bachman (Bachman's warbler, Bachman's sparrow) worked on the
Birds of America with him. Thomas Mayo Brewer (Brewer's blackbird, Brewer's
sparrow), a doctor interesting in oology, was also a friend of Audubon's.
John Graham Bell (Bell's vireo), Edward Harris (Harris' hawk) and Isaac
Sprague (Sprague's pipit) all accompanied him on the famed trip to Missouri.
Thomas Lincoln (Lincoln's sparrow) accompanied Audubon on his trip to
Labrador. So sometimes it really is not what you know but who you know.
Many seabirds are
named for British Arctic explorers, those bold men searching for the
northwest passage. The Franklin's gull honors Sir John Franklin; the Ross'
gull, Sir James Clark Ross; Barrow's goldeneye, Sir John Barrow. Bonaparte's
gull is named not for an Englishman, but for a Frenchman, Charles Bonaparte,
nephew of Napoleon, and a great European ornithologist who spent eight of
his early years in America exploring and studying our natural history.
Two of our own famous (or infamous) explorers, Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark, after their long meandering trek across the country are
remembered in the northwest: Lewis' woodpecker and Clark's nutcracker.
Spencer Fullerton Baird, who was involved with both the army and the
Smithsonian, organized the enormous collection there provided by
soldier-naturalists stationed out west and was honored with Baird's sparrow
and Baird's sandpiper.
Bullock's oriole was named for William Bullock who was a British
naturalist and an entrepreneur who traveled to Mexico. The Baltimore oriole
honors George Calvert, the 1st Baron Baltimore, whose livery colors were
black and yellow (not orange?). The two species, Baltimore and Bullock's,
are lumped into a single species: the northern oriole. Sorry, listers, you
now have one fewer on your North American list.
Where are the women? There are a three warblers honoring women, women
related to famous ornithologists: Grace's warbler, for Coues' sister; Lucy's
warbler for Baird's daughter; Virginia's warbler for the wife of William
Anderson, a surgeon-soldier who collected for Baird. Young Bonaparte paid
tribute to his wife bestowing her name on the lovely Zenaida dove.
a..
There are many unsung ornithological heroes and occasionally the new
species. Most birders have stories of new species: birds clearly observed in
the field who fly off leaving the perplexed birder paging through one field
guide after another for a bird that just isn't there. These phantom species
make fewer and fewer appearances as the birder spends more time learning the
sounds, the plumage variations within species, the migration patterns and a
wee bit of humility.
Yet actual new species - not to be confused with a "new'' species
split from a former designation - have been discovered fairly recently in
the dense rainforests of Peru and Vietnam. If you find a new species, to get
even a latinized binomial would be a great honor indeed!
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Clellie Lynch is a regular Eagle contributor.
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