Hi Tweets,

Mike Patterson writes:

>Oldsquaw is not the only "long-tailed" duck. This makes
>the name inaccurate.

Oops: there's goes Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, since there's already a
Fork-tailed Flycatcher; there goes Red-necked Phalarope, since it's not the
only phalarope with a red neck; and as for poor old Black-headed Gull....

Gee, that's what happens when you present an opinion in the guise of a fact:
reality has a way of putting one into your bow just below the waterline.

>It might seem logical to select a name from the many Native
>American identifiers.

Logical, no; courteous, yes.

>Most of these onomatopoetic. The problem...well,
>they're not English

There go all those onomatopaeic names, Pewee, Killdeer, Kiskadee, Chickadee,
Towhee and so on. I'll miss 'em.

>and the AOU would be looking for uniform *English*
>language usage.

And of course you're including as 'English' such officially-sanctioned AOU
colloquials as Anhinga, Jabiru, Flamingo, Caracara, Chachalaca, Chukar,
Jacana, Skua, Jaeger, Zenaida Dove, Budgerigar, Ani, Pauraque, Mango--well,
that's a start; I got about halfway through the official AOU list. You might
need to reword this part of your Website for greater, um, accuracy, Mike.

>Native American names would have the advantage of priority, the rule of
>thumb in naming that the first name to comes into use gets chosen.

Well, no, not really; such would be a courtesy to the First Peoples here,
but not observance of a convention. If the *convention* is fully observed by
the AOU as it has in some other circumhemispheric, sometimes-monotypic
species first described in Europe, they will use the prior colloquial name
assigned by naturalists there--in other words, conform to the BOU List for
shared species since in both the vernacular is English. Again, there's
precedent: the reversion of the names Duck Hawk, Pigeon Hawk and Sparrow
Hawk back to Peregrine Falcon, Merlin and Kestrel. And I'll bet there were
many US & Canadian falconers and birders in the Fifties who were equally
resistant to any such change--I'll bet that fifty years from now birders
won't even remember the fuss.

Trying to think of an analogous situation in Britain & Europe to US going
its own way on nomenclature of shared species (and Canada, lacking its own
Ornithological Union, tagging along like a kid brother), imagine the Brits
revising the name of, say, Canada Goose or Ruddy Duck to White-cheeked Goose
and Russet Stifftail, respectively, for the official BOU List while and
though the former two colloquial names are still in currency here. Such a
change would naturally seem unwarrante, parochial and arbitrary to North
American birders & ornithologists. Well, that would be if the shoe were on
the other foot, of course, so to speak.

>An alternate name that has stricken the fancy of many
>of us is <B>Callithumpian Duck.

Stricken is right, but "many"? Hmmm. *That* assertion would be far better
for proof.

>It is English.

Well, sort of, Mike, in a *very* limited way. It's more like dog-English, a
folk-grotesque word--almost a portmanteau--invented for a particular satiric
purpose. Outside of that narrow application, it would have no currency as a
term in common usage. It is sesquipedalian, I'll grant you that. '-)

>It also refers to the
>call. A callithump is, according to the <I>New Webster's International
>Dictionary</I>, is a raucous and noisy parade. A callithumpian band, according
>to <I>The Geese, Ducks and Swans of North America </I>(Kortright, 1943)
>is "(an) improvised band of uncertain musical ability." This would certainly
>be a more original, poetic and descriptive name.</FONT>

Perhaps for a big flock of blatting, blaring cranes or swans, but I think
I'm on fairly safe esthetic grounds by saying that such a description
certainly does not apply to Clangula hyemalis, whose calls have a mellow,
harmonised quality quite unlike the dissonant, disharmonic incompetence of a
'callithumpian' band. An original, very loose interpretation of Kortright's
unpoetic remarks, and inappropriately applied to this species.

In the final analysis, this is a simple choice. The AOU has wisely expunged
from offical sanction those colloquial bird names which used terms deemed
offensive against non-white people and/or women. Beyond all the semantic
bobbing and weaving, the two questions are simple: do US & Canadian birders
want to retain or reject a racist, sexist name? Yes or no? Does the AOU
intend to observe the principle of prior nomenclature? Yes or no?

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net

"She's psychic....we've decided to find it charming."
--Frasier