To get even further off topic.

Clearly we need an American Mammalogists Union ... but of course there
already is one: American Society of Mammalogists (ASM).

http://www.mammalsociety.org/

And the IOU is paralleled in the International Federation of
Mammalogists (IFM) with a Nomenclature committee

http://www.mammalogyinternational.org/

The ASM have a committee for keeping track of the names (including
vernacular names) of mammals and first reports of the species in the
literature. Not quite a field guide but useful.

http://www.mammalsociety.org/committees/content.asp?ID=4

> The Checklist Committee was established by the Board of Directors in
> 1980 to provide advice on Mammal Species of the World, edited by J.
> H. Honacki et al. (1982) and published by Allen Press and the
> Association for Systematics Collections. ASM and the Checklist
> Committee assumed responsibility for maintenance of this database
> and its periodic revisions in electronic and text versions. The
> second edition (1993) and third edition (2005) were edited by D. E.
> Wilson and D. M. Reeder.
>
> Responsibilities
>
> The Checklist Committee is charged with compiling and updating the
> publication, Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic
> Reference. Current authors for Mammal Species of the World make up
> the checklist committee.

> Beginning with the third edition (Wilson & Reeder, 2005), Mammal
> Species of the World now includes common names, authorities for
> synonyms, and the recognition of subspecies.

And one of the things they list are vernacular synonyms for the Latin
binomial names. But they don't really decide on "official names".

And it's online here

http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/

They have six species that are called Jackrabbit (with that form of
spelling).

> SPECIES Lepus (Macrotolagus) alleni (match on common name Antelope
> Jackrabbit)
> SPECIES Lepus (? [see comments under species]) californicus (match
> on common name Black-tailed Jackrabbit)
> SPECIES Lepus (? [see comments under species]) callotis (match on
> common name White-sided Jackrabbit)
> SPECIES Lepus (? [see comments under species]) flavigularis (match
> on common name Tehuantepec Jackrabbit)
> SPECIES Lepus (Proeulagus) insularis (match on common name Black
> Jackrabbit)
> SPECIES Lepus (? [see comments under species]) townsendii (match
> on common name White-tailed Jackrabbit)

That latter was found in Walla Walla, WA.

And of course we recognize some of those names (Allen and Townsend).

In paper form the closest one can find for this is by a member of the
committee is the earlier "Common Names of Mammals of the World" by Don
E. Wilson and F. Russell Cole (Smithsonian Institution Scholarly
Press, 2000).

Though that won't stop the locals calling it by the local name and
mispelling it ... with or without the hyphens.

On Aug 7, 2009, at 9:45 AM, Kelly Cassidy wrote:

> To further elaborate on Kelly McAllister's comments about Jack
> Rabbits (or
> Jackrabbits or Jack-Rabbits; sure wish mammals had a recognized
> arbitrator
> of common and scientific names like birds).

--
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com