The lists by Thomas Love and David Buckley are great, and no one has even
mentioned all the vernacular names coined for ducks by hunters. I'd like to
add that the names listed by Thomas were true colloquial names, while all
those but Vesper Sparow, towhee and Snow Bunting listed by David were
subspecies common names that were actually coined by ornithologists. At one
point in time, all subspecies of North American birds had their own English
name, listed in the AOU check-list and in various field guides. Our local
Bewick's Wren can be found as Seattle Wren in many books, and some of the
older ornithologists I've met still referred to some species by these
names. Farallon Cormorant, Tule Wren, Oregon Jay, Gambel's Sparrow. With
the splitting trend, we may even be using some of these names again!

I'm in total agreement with David about Ralph Hoffmann's Birds of the
Pacific States. This is a gem of a book; buy it if you can ever find one in
a used book store (David Hutchinson has acquired copies for people--for a
price, of course). Published in 1927, its accounts are so much more
readable today than are those in some other books of the time (some of
which actually embarrass me when I read them, they are so anthropomorphic).
It's as if Hoffmann is standing at your shoulder explaining something
you're seeing today, completely transcending time in a colorful and poetic
but thoroughly accurate way. And the artwork by Allan Brooks is also
superb, like everything he did.


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416