Subject: Re: Species splits
Date: Jan 13 00:50:48 1998
From: jbowling at direct.ca - jbowling at direct.ca


** Reply to note from Rick R.

----------
I have to give a brief talk on the Spotted Towhee on Thursday, and I have a
dumb question: I know that they have recently been split, but what I don't
know is (a) who has the final word on splits (is it the AOU?) and (b) in the
case of Rufous-sided Towhee, what was the rationale (It must have been
something more than spots on the flanks?). Anyone have a reference?
----------

Quoting from Greenlaw, J.S. 1996. Eastern Towhee (_Pipilo erythrophthalamus_).
In _The Birds of North America_, No. 262 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and the American Ornithologists'
Union, Washington, D.C.

more precisely paragraph 2 of p.4:

" A recent evaluation of the Sibley and West (1959) hybrid evidence from (the)
Great Plains contact zone led to elevation of western towhee populations to
species rank (Am. Ornithol. Union 1995). Widespread occurrence of pure parental
types of one species or the other in (the) hybrid zone, even along (the) Platte
River where hybrids dominate, suggests assortative mating (Am. Ornithol. Union
1995)."

This suggests two things: a) The AOU is the ultimate arbiter; b) hybridization
was not rampant enough to justify subspecific rank for the two forms.

There seems to have been either an editorial glitch or a conscious decision
to remove the definite article "the" from many of the passages of this account,
possibly to cut the word count in an effort to save a few sheckles. I added it
back in parentheses above.

-Jack





Jack Bowling
RR1-S14-C41
Prince George, BC
Canada
V2N 2H8
phone: (250) 963-7837
fax: (250) 963-7801
jbowling at direct.ca