Hi all --
I forwarded Dennis' note about AOU changes for North American birds to my
father, who currently lives and birds in Peru. He sent the following
note back, and I thought it was kind of an interesting comment on the
usefulness of the standardized common names that we use here in North
America. So here it is for your interest:

***
Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 15:01:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Shane Hunt <shunt at amauta.rcp.net.pe>
To: Kathleen Hunt <jespah at u.washington.edu>

I had a funny reaction to the letter that you forwarded on bird name
changes. I thought, "This is really absurd, that I find this so
interesting." But there you have it. I suppose this might change the
balance of power between those top birders forever trying to be No.
1 in the U.S. bird count.

It occurred to me, the U.S. has for birds what the whole Spanish
language has: An official body that keeps order. For Spanish this is
the Real Academia in Madrid, and it's why Spanish remains such an
tidy language. By contrast, there is to my knowledge no body
equivalent to the AOU, and common bird names here are chaotic. I
note that birders and biologists here are much more inclined to
identify by scientific name. Examples: A coot is a focha in Spain, a
tagua in Chile and a gallereta in Peru. The common name for the long-
tailed mockingbird is listed in Koepcke (Birds of the Department of
Lima) as chisco, sonia, chauca, or chaucato. It was the most common
bird in Lunahuana, where we spent Christmas a year ago, and when I
asked locals what it was called, a couple replied, "Chisca," i.e., none
of the above. Another example: the vermilion flycatcher is abundant
along the coast of Peru and in the gardens of Lima. Koepcke gives it
two local names: turtupilin, and putilla (which means little whore).
But everybody calls it petirojo. I discovered the other day that
petirojo is the word in Spain for the English robin. So evidently the
Spanish colonists did the same as the English: misname a local bird
that reminded them of the dear red bird of their homeland.

***
kind of interesting, eh?

cheers,
Kathleen