Kirk Roth
Rarely to be taken seriously
Like I said before, I think this is inconsistent and wrong. My solution, however, would not be to start carving the American House Sparrow in subspecies, but to remove clinal subspecies from other bird species such as the Song Sparrow. Such a classification would be more consistent, more rigorous, and less confusing (for both you and me!).
I've weighed in on this topic before, but I feel that naming the differences in organisms is a good thing - that way we can at least communicate about them. I agree with your point above that its a shame that government agencies, general public, etc. don't understand what a cline means with regard to taxonomy. But I don't think the answer is to rid ourselves of clinal subspecies. From a scientific standpoint, I don't see the problem with a pair of good, diagnosable subspecies with recognized intergrades between them. Ultimately, I think that the consistent, rigorous and less confusing classification is the one which best reflects reality.