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Renaming all North American Birds (1 Viewer)

Britseye said:
For a while I went round with the notion that Alfred Pallas had several birds named after him, only to one day discover via a For Sale notice in someone's front garden that it was in fact a firm of estate agents. :-C

https://www.alfredpallas.com/

Hats off to JWN Andrews for a very good last post. How about Superciliared Hemispingus for a name to conjure with.

(I was going to say 'Merlin' - now there's a name to conjure with, but you've probably heard that one before! :king:)
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Yes. And I even used to think the bird was named after him, but it isn't, of course. Per Wikipedia: "The name "merlin" is derived from Old French esmerillon via Anglo-Norman merilun or meriliun." Esmerillion was apparently a previous name specific to the bird (?) Wikipedia also says that the sorcerer's name came from a Welsh term.

Reminds me of when we went to Ghana and found ourselves in Tamale after going to Mole National Park. Not expecting names of Mexican foods! :-O
 
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Bobolink and Bobwhite Quail are two more bird names commemorating some relatively unknown historical figures in both first and last names.

The former an American-Irish golfing star from the turn of the century and the latter commemorating both Bob White of the Florida Republican party and Mr Dan Quail, ex-vice-presidential candidate from Minnesota.
 
dantheman said:
Bobolink and Bobwhite Quail are two more bird names commemorating some relatively unknown historical figures in both first and last names.

The former an American-Irish golfing star from the turn of the century and the latter commemorating both Bob White of the Florida Republican party and Mr Dan Quail, ex-vice-presidential candidate from Minnesota.
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And please do not forget Mr. Richard Cissel.

Also, I think for Mr. Quail you are thinking of that other Bloomington.
 
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dantheman said:
Bobolink and Bobwhite Quail are two more bird names commemorating some relatively unknown historical figures in both first and last names.

The former an American-Irish golfing star from the turn of the century and the latter commemorating both Bob White of the Florida Republican party and Mr Dan Quail, ex-vice-presidential candidate from Minnesota.
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Oh, you are good! :t:
 
I did check - you're probably thinking of Mr Dan Quayle of Indiana? - there seem to be as many Bloomingtons as Springfields - the one in Illinois even has a VP Mr Quale! (Or maybe not ;) )

Cissel - didn't know that was a real name. There is a famous Chuck Cissel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Cissel

Wondering if he had a relative called Chuck Wills (probably who had a job as a night security guard) who married but then sadly passed on, leaving his widow to be further commemorated in the name ...
 
Britseye said:
Oh ...
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Probably not in the spirit of the moment or the thread ... naming US birds after conventional white figures, fictional or otherwise ;)



EDIT: Although Chuck Cissel, 71 - African American Jazz Producer etc, and from Tulsa Oklahoma, of all places ...
 
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dantheman said:
I did check - you're probably thinking of Mr Dan
Cissel - didn't know that was a real name.
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A quick spin through the interwebz turned up someone named Robin (!) Cissel of Monrovia, Maryland. There ya go.
So there may really be a Richard Cissel out there!
Edit: There is. Or there was...
 
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And the young John Snipe and Margaret Pie. ;)

JWN Andrewes said:
I cannot see justification for a single one of these. We should not be afraid to maintain or use little understood words; it has never been easier to track down the meaning of words we don't know. Anyone who doesn't know the meaning of the word Pectoral, or Ferruginous, or Lanceolated, simply doesn't want to.
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Most men who went to a gym know the word pectoral. Breasted Sandpiper? :-O I commented earlier that most these names are not only archaic but also wrong. Also, the number of words used in everyday English is growing, despite that many fall out into archaic.

I was not very serious. Bird names seem to function like surnames or place names, which have little relation to the object. Like Mr Smith is usually not a smith, and today Oxford has no oxen or a ford.

If bird names were normal, utilitarian names, they should be updated. Using unnecessarily difficult language is not considered a merit but a flaw. It also results in two kinds of speech: an official one and the one used practically, which omits longer and more difficult words. When you listen to what birders really say in the field, they use only parts of names 'it's a sandwich' or shorthands 'it's a Pom'. That is why dictionaries and books, for example The Bible, are periodically updated. That is why Pectoral Sandpiper could be changed to Band-breasted Sandpiper.
 
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jurek said:
If bird names were normal, utilitarian names, they should be updated. Using unnecessarily difficult language is not considered a merit but a flaw. It also results in two kinds of speech: an official one and the one used practically, which omits longer and more difficult words. When you listen to what birders really say in the field, they use only parts of names 'it's a sandwich' or shorthands 'it's a Pom'. That is why dictionaries and books, for example The Bible, are periodically updated. That is why Pectoral Sandpiper could be changed to Band-breasted Sandpiper.
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In these circumstances of shorthanding, Pectoral Sandpiper becomes Pec Sand, and Sandwich Tern becomes Sarnie :t:

There's several names that could easily be shortened 'officially' - virtually everyone in the birding community would know what is meant by e.g. Spotshank, Blackwit, and Barwit.

What I do wonder is how French birders cope with their often even more cumbersome names - what's the French shorthand for 'Pluvier à collier interrompu'? ["Plover with an interrupted collar" - Kentish Plover]
 
I think the champion is Peter-Paul Pallas, who not only has loads of birds / mammals etc named after him, but a minor planet, a class of meteorite and a Russian city:
Pallas' Fish Eagle
The city of Pallasovka
Pallas' Rosefinch
Lunar crater Pallas
Pallas' Leaf Warbler
The stony-iron meteorite group pallasite,
The asteroid Pallas
Pallas' Cat
Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler etc...
 
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