Whether I am right or wrong,

I have always separated the difference between "morph" and "phase" as:

morph is constant and does not change seasonally or during one's lifetime
(i.e."when you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way.....from your first
cigarette to your last dieing day" (West Side Story));

whereas "phase" is used with changing situations (e.g. ptarmigan changing
plumage seasonally, etc.)

eric kowalczyk
seattle


> [Original Message]
> From: Hal Opperman <hal at catharus.net>
> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Date: 11/15/2010 10:20:07 AM
> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Brown phase Gyrfalcon?
>
> As an academic I hope I'll be forgiven for offering an academic answer to
what is, really, an academic question : "morph" and the various related
English words come from the Greek word meaning form, or shape. Thus
"amorphous" = formless, "polymorphic" = having many forms; "gray morph" =
gray form. The question of whether "morphs" may correctly be applied to
various forms of a living organism is not merely academic but purely
academic, in that the answer is not grounded in some verifiable, external
truth but is rather a product of consensus within the academy. There is no
objectively right or wrong answer to questions like this; there is only
usage. So lick your index finger, point it in the air, and see which way
the wind is blowing.
>
> Hal Opperman
> Medina, WA
> hal at catharus.net_______________________________________________
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