Charles Vaughan wrote "On the subject of misleading common names and
taxonomy, my favorite is the 'Evening Grosbeak' that is ot really a
grosbeak."

Charles, I hadn't noted the P.S. on your message of some days ago until Dan
Victor put them all together today. Shows that it's good to have something
run by you at least twice.

Evening Grosbeaks *are* grosbeaks; they deserve the name as much as any
other grosbeak. If you have heard otherwise, it may stem from the fact that
Evening and Pine grosbeaks (and some Asian species) are members the family
(Fringillidae), at least in some classification schemes, while the
Rose-breasted and Black-headed (and some other mostly Neotropical)
grosbeaks are members of the family Emberizidae, subfamily
Cardinalinae--thus the name is used for birds that certainly evolved
independently of one another. The word just means "big beak" and probably
comes from the French language. I imagine the first-named grosbeaks were
from Europe, so if anything the Evening deserves the name more than the
Black-headed.

Try checking out the word "bunting" if you are interested in the evolution
and distribution of bird names. Or "warbler" or "robin."

Dennis Paulson