Subject: Re: bird names
Date: Jan 20 09:33:21 1995
From: Dick Cannings - cannings at bcu.ubc.ca




On Thu, 19 Jan 1995, Alvaro Patricio Jaramillo wrote:

> There are many birds named after localities within the states, like
> Seiurus noveboracensis, Pheucticus ludovicianus, Pipilo (e.) oreganus,
> Larus philadelphia, Larus delawarensis, etc. etc. I wonder how many of
> the states are represented in Latin binomials? Are any Canadian provinces
> represented in Latin names?
>
I can't think of any Canadian provinces commemorated in Latin names,
although one of the Say's Phoebe subspecies is yukonensis, but that may
refer to the river rather than the territory. The fact is, when most of
these birds were getting named, there were no provinces in Canada, it was
just called Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec), although
the Maritimes and Newfoundland were named as well. Most of western
Canada was owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, so many of the birds
collected by their expeditions and employees were given "hudsonius" or
"hudsonicus" epithets.

Richard J. Cannings cannings at bcu.ubc.ca
Cowan Vertebrate Museum vertmus at bcu.ubc.ca
Department of Zoology, (604)822-4665
University of British Columbia (604)822-2416 (FAX)
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 CANADA