97-11-27, Hal Opperman writes:

<< These language discussions are fascinating, like all questions for which
there is no certain answer and can never be (barring, that is, the institution
of all-powerful Thought Police)..... >>

My delighted thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread (29 posts by my
count, 11/26-12/01 plus one more, 12/09). Your responses were very
informative and instructive, delving into complicated language usage and
historical contexts, plus some down right witty and humorous. Possessed or
not to be possessed, possessive or otherwise. Most enlightening and fun.
Whenever a question pops up, I know where to turn for the best of minds and
learned enlightenment -- right here on Tweeters. So, I guess the final
verdict is in. *Xantus's* like it or not, is the current standard of wisdom
adopted by the AOU, and I am pleased to note that the latest WOS Field Card of
Washington Birds is already right up there on the cutting edge, spelling the
names of all those s's and ss's birds correctly. Good going guys!

Then... 97-12-12, spoil sport '-) Jack Bowling writes:

<< If any of you golden throng who went to Gibson's, BC to
view the Xantus' (note no apostrophe) Hummingbird....snip... >>

Uh oh. Unhappy camper are we? '-) Dissension in the ranks??
Well, okay... what about.. Canada Goose and Canada Warbler?
Do I hear a few bars of "Oh Canada" gushing forth now? YES! ..at this very
instant in fact as I wrote goose and warbler! Sorry -- I'm just now
coincidentally listening to Pat & Lisa on Seattle's KIRO-FM (100.7, the BUZZ).
:-))

Hal Opperman further writes:

<< If we really want to have some fun with this, then we could ask why it's
Canada Goose but not Mexico Chickadee.... >>

Hmm... most curious. Canada Goose and Canada Warbler. I'm sure the Canadian
government or people of Canada aren't directly responsible; it's just sort of
how these two turned out. By my quick scan of Monroe and Sibley's, "A World
Checklist of Birds," for no other *country* so lists a species in such a
manner without tacking on an "n" or "an" (e.g. Mexican, Peruvian, Australian,
etc. -- I didn't mention American -- America is not a country) or some other
adjectival qualifier or suffix, that is *not* exclusively endemic or
widespread multinational and/or migratory. There are plenty world wide that
are endemics, e.g. New Zealand 'this', Madagascar 'that', etc. I've not seen
either one of those two, the 'this' and 'that, but 'this' and 'that' are
beside the point. Country now; not state or province or city even, for which
the U.S. has several, in fact leads the world in the number of such species
which by all rights it probably shouldn't have. But you know what kind of
'holier than thou' bullies we can be sometimes.

Possibly treading here on thin ice; you know what they say about people that
live in glass houses.... But, at least for now, putting aside and ignoring
California Condor, Quail, Gnatcatcher, Thrasher, Towhee, Carolina Parakeet,
Chickadee, Wren, Kentucky, Tennessee, Connecticut Warbler, Louisiana
Waterthrush, [sssuuup, deep breath] Virginia Rail, Key West Quail Dove,
Philadelphia Vireo, Cape May Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, and
St. Louis Cardinal (-- oops, that's something different), put in this **non-
adjectival non-possessive** no apostrophes perspective or context, what then
can be said with respect to the non-endemic and migratory and thus uniquely
nationalistic so named Canada Goose and Canada Warbler? At least, thank God
it wasn't Canada's Goose and Canada's Warbler! Then, we really would have
something to quarrel about. You saw what kind of mess Canada's salmon got us
into :-)

>From my limited library, I looked up these two in Ernest Choate ("The
Dictionary of American Bird Names") which says nothing more than 'refers to
the breeding range although not limited to Canada'. Then I thought; maybe the
origin of "Canada" might be a descriptive noun meaning something other than
what we all dismiss as the obvious. Webster's was no help -- 'a country in
North America' -- humph! thanks no thanks Daniel. I'm not a well learned
student of the English language and never really paid much attention to the
origins of most words, and my dictionary only has 1,692 pages, so am kind of
muddling along here, but I am beginning to discover that what we all so take
for granted more fascinating the more I belatedly here in life delve into it.

key words to discussion = **non-adjectival and non-possessive**

Before anyone replies to this, read this post again carefully. I hope I
expressed the point that I'm trying to make sufficiently.

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA USA)
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God was my co-pilot,
but when we crashed in the mountains,
I had to eat him :-))
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