On Apr 13, 2011, at 3:58 PM, Joseph V Higbee wrote:

> I was looking for further info on this species, subspecies or whatever.

Hybrid.

Though as Sibley points out the chance the the junoc will e split in the future is one reason to care if you list :-)

> Either way I don?t imagine the birds will care.

Precisely. But birders have to communicate things they do care about arbitrary names.

The spelling reference was a joking reference to a previous thread ... I've met two birders recently who when I gave them my full name mentioned the "spelling thread" on Tweeters. Infamy! Infamy!

But it is named for Cassiar, BC. It's an asbestos ghost town (which I think makes it even more interesting).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassiar,_British_Columbia

Though I can't find the original cite.

A reference from Joeseph Grinell (i.e Prof "Method for field notes" if you know his work) in 1923 is one of the earliest I can find that uses the name

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v025n05/p0172-p0176.pdf

I don't have a copy but they're mentioned in Bent too (the Natural History Museum Bulletins before the books) and so probably in the Dover editions too.

A search of Google Books shows plenty of references

http://www.google.com/search?q=Cassiar-junco

e.g. including Canadian 1904 reference

http://books.google.com/books?id=pNQpAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Cassiar-junco&hl=en&ei=0HCmTeigIpGH0QGE94X0CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFwQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

It's one of those things where someone makes Cassiar into Cassiar's ("hey, it sounds like a name") and if you don't know the origin of the name you just propagate the version you heard.
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Kevin Purcell (Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA)
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