In perusing the copy of Winging It (newsletter of the American
Birding Association) that arrived thursday, I noted that the anonymous
author of the blurb for an upcoming ABA meeting managed to work both
"Florida Scrub-jay" and "Western Scrub-jay" into the meeting description.
In light of Van Remsen's recent communication with BirdChat and Tweeters,
it seems a bit premature to be throwing those names around without any
sort of explanation. If the winging it scribe (Greg Butcher, executive
director of the ABA, perhaps) is on the nomenclature committee of the
American Ornithologists Union, I think that the hyphen supporters will
have at least one advocate.

My position on hyphens? Well, since you ask (and with a little
help from Webster's):

eschew(vb)
1 syn: ESCAPE 2, avoid, bilk, double, duck, elude, evade, shun, shy
idiom: shy away from, steer clear of
con: adopt, embrace, espouse
ant: choose
2 syn: FORGO, forbear, sacrifice
rel: abstain, refrain
idiom: let well enough alone


Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu