Although my planned Dictionary of English Bird Names is still only in its early stages, I give below part of the Introduction (written in 2009), presaging the current hue and cry and petition to the AOS, true descendents of Eugene Eisenmann, regarding eponyms.
“Most modern specific English names, especially those of tropical birds, are made-up or book-names created within the last one hundred years for the benefit of the ever increasing body of bird-watchers and field ornithologists. Despite the pioneering efforts of Cory, Hellmayr & Conover (1918-1949), W.
Sclater (1924-1930), and Mathews (1930), early attempts to provide regional English bird-names were generally met with indifference, the subject not being considered relevant or weighty enough by the museum-bound ornithological community. Even the bold experiment by the editors of Peters’ Checklist(1960), Vol. IX, was never repeated. Modern attempts to standardise the bird names of a regional avifauna began under the guidance of Eugene Eisenmann (especially The Species of Middle American Birds (1955)), followed by Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee, whose seminal The Species of Birds of South America and their Distribution (1966) laid a solid foundation for the names of Neotropical birds. Both of these authors set a trend by trawling through the confusing wealth of names that had previously been used, and choosing a single epithet for each species that was considered the most appropriate or popular. Eisenmann formulated guide-lines for deciding on the most suitable name, although his anathema towards eponyms became the butt of a doggerel rhyme,
“There was a young birder named Gene
Who on eponyms vented his spleen.
Temminck and Kittlitz
Were both on his hitlitz,
And Pallas should never be seen.” ANON.
Nevertheless, his criteria formed the basis for many of today’s modern treatments (even Sibley & Monroe (1991) preferred “Lemon-rumped Warbler” over
“Pallas’s Leaf Warbler”), and, since the boom in bird-watching and foreign travel and the subsequent wealth of hand-books, popular magazines and
field-guides, the importance and use of English names has gained momentum. In the USA, in the best traditions of a civil service, committees have been
set up to decide on the most appropriate names for the birds of the Americas. They have the best of motives, but, like all bureaucracies, become self-
fulfilling and mired in minutiae, defensive of their opinions and perceived rights, and have too easily forgotten the purpose and benefits of scientific
names.”
