Subject: [Tweeters] RE: A plea for the correct use of the word "Merlin"
Date: Mar 17 17:38:17 2011
From: notcalm at comcast.net - notcalm at comcast.net


I think I shall never see, something as beautiful as a Rufous-sided, Towhee.



I too sometimes will naturally say "seagulls" and "Canadian geese". I must add that saying "Canadian geese" has a better feel than "Canada goose". And when no one is present to correct me, I prefer to say "Rufous-sided Towhee", which for me, is a beautiful and more descriptive name. If some one asked for the identity of that species, I say it is a Spotted Towhee.


As Bud has pointed out, he prefers to use the terms dark Merlin or light Merlin in place of the the three different population names in field guides. I now understand that- after observing several that appeared to be intergrades.



So yes, if you are introducing both at a party, it would probably be appropriate to say: "I have the pleasure of introducing you to Merlin, the Magician and his companion, Merlin, the falcon."



Dan Reiff ----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
To: "Michael Hobbs" <BirdMarymoor at frontier.com>
Cc: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>, "Tweeters (E-mail)" <TWEETERS at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 5:19:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] RE: A plea for the correct use of the word "Merlin"

On Mar 17, 2011, at 4:51 PM, Michael Hobbs wrote:

> To my knowledge, there is no such official list of English names for any other class of organisms.

Birds are just particularly well organized for both common English and binomial names. But other classes are done too.

See for example the list that natureserve.org provides as their source for names and taxonomy and gives a feel for the range of sources that need to be drawn on to get a comprehensive set of names.

http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/classani.htm

US mammal common names are set by a naming committee of the American Society of Mammalogists and people follow them.

http://www.mammalsociety.org/mammals-list

The same holds for the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.

The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) has published a list of standard common names but not everyone sticks to it. RMP even goes into this at the beginning of Mariposa Road where he say's he mostly sticks to NABA names except where he doesn't usually because he likes the older names or thinks the NABA are poor choices or are well known in their older form. And it becomes clear if you compare his butterfly field guides with NABA (Glassberg) and Kaufman and Brock.

The NABA just doesn't have a moral might of the AOU, the BTO or the AMS to impose their names because they're not a professional organization: they're just a group of butterfliy watchers who don't even have a full support of all US leps fans (because of their anti-net rule). Perhaps in 25 to 50 years so the older generation die out the NABA standard names might have more force.

The butterfliers until recently haven't had a good single taxonomy that most field guides relied on (another feature of the AOU and BTO). Opler and Warren made a step forward in the 2000s and now Jonathan Pelham's catalog is becoming the standard. But there are no field guides that follow it yet. That area is ripe for a comprehensive field guide.

The issue is mostly how much the common names are needed (e.g. the professional leps people are happy with binomial names so they don't care that much) and if the organization has the gravitas to get people to hold to them i.e. if you are liable to get corrected on a list like this perhaps?
--
Kevin Purcell (Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA)
kevinpurcell at pobox.com
http://kevinpurcell.posterous.com
http://twitter.com/kevinpurcell

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