In a message dated 8/8/00 2:23:11 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
nyneve at u.washington.edu writes:

> i seem to recall that recently the black-capped and chestnut-backed
> chickadees' genus was renamed from Poecile (because the name is in
> the feminine article?). is this true?

Species names change to reflect the gender of the genus name.

_Parus_, the genus to which the chickadees were formerly assigned, is a
masculine word (a noun which, as far as I can tell, is the Latin word for
"tit").

_Poecile_, the genus created for the chickadees, is feminine (it's a
Latinized spelling of the feminine version of the Greek adjective *poikilos*,
which means "varied, variegated, multicolored". I assume it was put into the
feminine because it is understood to be describing a bird, and the Greek word
for "bird", *ornis*, is feminine).

Thus, the species names of some of the species had to be modified to match
the gender of their new genus: atricapillus, hudsonicus, cinctus become
atricapilla, hudsonica, cincta. Rufescens and carolinensis do not change
because those adjectives are the same in both genders. Gambeli and sclateri
remain the same because their endings depend on the gender of the person
being honored in the name (both men here) and not on the gender of the genus
name.

Nick Pharris
Olympia, WA
NJPharris at aol.com