>>>>>>> I had listed a Hooded Crow (corvus corone cornix) seen in Israel and a
Carrion Crow (Corvus corone corone) seen in Austria. The AviSys world list
only lists a Carrion Crow (Corvus corone). So I assume the Hooded Crow has
been lumped into the latter Carrion Crow.

I also saw Tristram's Grackle (onycognathus tristramii) at Masada in
Israel. I cannot find either the English name or scientific name in the world
list. Can anyone tell me what the Tristram's Grackle has been renamed?
<<<<<<<<<<<


Hugh, you missed a letter in the Latin name, thus your search failed to find the
bird. It's "Onyc~h~ognathus tristramii" and the English name is "Tristram's
Starling."

See Sibley and Monroe and Clements (on which AviSys is based). S&M refers to
"Grackle" as an "alternate group" name for the bird. Note that taxonomically the
bird is nowhere near the grackles, "Quiscalus ..." It's buried in with all the
starlings and glossy-starlings.

This also points out the beauty of using terse binomial Latin arguments in
AviSys searches. "/ony tri" goes right to the bird. Just like "/ass ome" gets
you to the House Sparrow, Passer domestica. (The / says, "Hey! This argument is
Latin.")

On the Thursday immediately preceding the end of civilization as we know it,
there will be established one world-wide taxonomy and universal English name
convention. I can hardly wait.<G> And they'll ~still~ be Loons! <GG>

Jerry Blinn
Perceptive Systems (AviSys)
Silverdale, WA


E-mail from: Jerry Blinn, 24-Aug-1997