[Tweeters] Historical Perspective on Re-naming Birds

[Robert O'Brien]

A related perspective.  My wife has a plant nursery and we, like most
dedicated gardeners, seem to have little problem in learning the Latin Name
plus the common name of a subspecies or of a cultivar (cultivated
variety).  A pine found by an Elk Hunter in the Wallowa Mtns and
extensively propagated (but still quite expensive) is a normal bright green
in summer like any other Lodgepole Pine, but in  winter turns to a
brilliant gold. This is not  fall color, the same needles are changing
colors seasonally back and forth.  it was named for Chief Joseph, a later
(than the trees) inhabitant of these mountains..
*Pinus contorta latifolia* 'Chief Joseph'.  Lodgepole Pine.  There are many
thousands of these in cultivation today, all propagated by grafting from
this one fantastic 'find'. Grafts of grafts, etc. A genetic modification.
Such varieties cannot be propagated by seed as they don't come true.  Only
vegetatively.
Before 1959 it was fashionable to give a cultivated variety a latin name.
This might have named the above pine  *Pinus contorta latifolia* 'Aurea'..
After 1959 such use of Latin for newly named cultivated varieties was
outlawed, as was the use of cv. to indicate a cultivar.  The initials cv.
are now just assumed in the name.
Anyhow my main point is that a great many 'plant people' are quite happy
using Latin names.  As for me I'm quite happy with English names for birds.
But I have my limits.  Siberian Tit (mostly a far northern Eurasian
resident) was changed to Gray-headed Chickadee.  Arggg.  Later,
Blue-throated Hummingbird was changed by the same group to Blue-throated
Mountain-gem.  Double Argg-Argg.  (I don't know the latin word for Argggg)
Bob OBrien Portland




On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 3:13 PM Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney <
festuca at comcast.net> wrote:


> Bob Righter from Denver posted this on the Colorado birding chat group.  I

> thought it might be an interesting read for those of us who are 'anxiously'

> awaiting action from the AOS on revising the Common Names of birds that are

> named after People.

>

> "From chatter on the internet emerges an interesting article by Ludlow

> Griscom written in 1947 “Common Sense in Common names.” Griscom, was a

> power house in the early 1900s and greatly influenced Roger Tory Peterson.

> The full article can be accessed through Google. I’ve taken the liberty of

> just featuring the last paragraph which I thought was the most poignant to

> our conversation on Bird Names:

>

> "NO “simple and logical principles” for vernacular nomenclature can be

> formulated.  There are far too many birds; their variations, relationships,

> and ranges are not simple or logical. Their habits and habitats change from

> season to season, from one section of the continent to another, from

> century to century. Which season, which habitat, which section of the

> country is to be the basis for the “appropriate or associative” name?"

>

> The article can be read at

> https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v059n03/p0131-p0138.pdf

>

> Enjoy!

>  - Jon. Anderson

>  Olympia

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