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AOU-NACC Proposals 2019 (2 Viewers)

All races and ethnicities should be able to conduct future research on any bird without feeling excluded, uncomfortable, or shame when they hear or say the name of the bird. This longspur is named after a man who fought for years to maintain the right to keep slaves, and also fought against multiple Native tribes.

Let’s rename all birds named after military officers, priests or colonial officials while we are at it. They were only there to oppress the natives weren’t they? And what about collectors who shot birds? Must be unethical. Or employed native collectors without paying them a full wage. Every time I see Victoria’s Riflebird I think of that foreign family who still oppress Australia. And I am uncomfortable with Salim Ali’s Swift – didn’t you know he was a communist!!
 
Taxonomy and nomenclature are not science, so one can go all the way.

For example, all birds and wildlife with the name "American" might be renamed "Mikinoc Waajew" to reflect the name of the continent used by native people who knew these brds and wildlife for millenia before Europeans.

American Oystercatcher => Mikinoc Waajew Oystercatcher
American Redstart => Mikinoc Waajew Redstart.
and so on.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-Native-American-names-for-the-North-American-subcontinent
 
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If I'm ever lucky enough to see MacCown's Longspur I'll appreciate the bird having a memorable name at least, and won't give the historical figure or his reputation more than a second's thought.
Guys, please don't replace it with something blah and forgettable!

Not touching the hyphen debate other than to say - Douglas Fir. Why? It is not a bloody fir ;)
 
I like 2019 -A- 15. I have seen these francolins in Hawaii. The proposal mentions Ortygornis for erckolii? Wolters puts only pomdicerianus there.
“Pternistis erckelii is similar to the rest of the spurfowls, but has a distinct jaw line which is only partly visible on the jaws of a few other spurfowls.”
“There are more stripes on the side of the face of Pternistis erckelii than in other spurfowls, such as having a distinct jaw stripe and a thin stripe above the orbit which is more bold and typical of Scleroptila spp. and female P. coqui. The jaw stripe is only faintly visible on some other spurfowls. Ostensibly, while this seems to be a logical course of evolutionary events, for instance that P. erckelii could link the spurfowls and Scleroptila spp.”
“The prominent jaw stripe of P. erckelii (and to a lesser extent by other spurfowls) is also evident in Coturnix coturnix, N. meleagris and V. acryllium chicks.”
“P. icterorynchus, P. nobilis and P. erckelii, (chicks) generally have a reddish appearance, but their patterns (structurally) remain like the rest.”
The phylogeny of francolins (Francolinus, Dendroperdix, Peliperdix and Scleroptila) and spurfowls (Pternistis) based on chick plumage (2018) Perhaps P. erckolii needs its own genus?
Wolters in Die Vogelarten der Erde puts P. erckelii in an unnamed subgenus along with P. ochropectus castaneicollis, jacksoni, nobilis, camerunensis, and swerstrai. Wolters also put a few species of P. into Chaetopus Swaison 1837.
 
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I am surprised at your outrage given that plants, which you frequently include in your IDs, long ago did away with those apostrophes (e.g., Douglas Fir)

However, even in the US, most other animal groups do use the apostrophe - butterflies, mammals, frogs, etc
 
Dall sheep
Douglas squirrel
Abert squirrel

Anybody know what the HMW does with such names?

Your last squirrel at least usually has an apostrophe, as does a certain prairie dog etc. And as for butterflies, here in Europe at least, they all do, but then so do the birds 😊
 
McCown's Longspur. Slavery is a sin. The U.S. Army killed lots of native peoples. Judging someone born in 1815 in 2018 viewed through a modern sensibility is awkward. I do judge I want statutes of Confederate Generals torndown. Because stupid people use them to engender hate. If someone got whipped into Pol Pot's army or Hitler's army they cannot have a bird named after them? People are complex. I made a lot of dumb choices as a youth. I have changed. Not to defend Mccown's role as a Confederate General but he grew disenchanted after a long while of the Confederacy "McCown declared the Confederacy was nothing more than "a damned stinking cotton oligarchy... gotten up for the benefit of Isham G. Harris and Jefferson Davis and their damned corrupt cliques.".
 
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If I'm ever lucky enough to see MacCown's Longspur I'll appreciate the bird having a memorable name at least

But not so memorable that we can always spell it right, it seems. ;)

Lol :t:
In my defence I am a Scot and thoroughly aware that the original Mc = Mac (Gaelic for 'son of') and must've unconsciously added the 'a'.

Out of interest which (if any) of the suggested alternative names given would be most acceptable to all you North American forum members?
 
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