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Clements 6° Edition - The Screw-ups (1 Viewer)

cuckooroller

cuckooroller

Registered User
Please render this a sticky.

I am initiating this thread in the hopes that whoever notices any gross mistakes in the text of the new Clements might have a place to annotate them so that others may avail themselves of the information.

The thread is not intended to serve for discussion of what could have, and should have been included in the volume in the way of updated taxonomy.
 
To start things off:

Rallus mirificus (5° Ed.) now changed to Lewinia mirificus. This is a mistake. The mistake is not in the change of the generic name to Lewinia, which is fine, however the gender of Lewinia is feminine - it should be Lewinia mirifica.
 
Rallus pectoralis now Lewinia pectoralis. This mistake here is in the maintenance of race captus - it should now be "capta". There may be some reason for maintaining the spelling of race brachipus as is, though I ignore why, and I say this because the Howard & Moore that though recognising Lewinia as being of feminine gender, and though listing rightly capta, does however maintain the spelling of brachipus as is. Race insulsus should be also changed to insulsa.
 
P. 89 - The Gill & Wright would render the English Common Names for Rostratula sp. as Painted Snipe, which is fine though perhaps premature, but not yet adopted by the Clements. When they (the Clements) split race australis from benghalensis as Australian Painted Snipe they should have noticed that the other two species listed by them as Rostratula are listed as Painted-snipe. So, correct to Australian Painted-snipe, or change all of them. Where are their proofreaders!
 
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Slightly confused on this one. The Clements 5° Ed. initially listed Nothoprocta kalinowskii as a monotypic good species. Subsequently, they lumped taxon kalinowskii with Nothoprocta ornata as a good race. The last that I had heard is that taxon kalinowskii was found to be a junior synonym of Nothoprocta ornata branickii and therefore eliminated. Now, in the Clements 6° Edition it has mystifyingly reappeared as a good species - Kalinowski's Tinamou (Nothoprocta kalinowskii) monotypic. I can find nothing corroborating the necessity of exhumation of this corpse. Am I missing something?
 
cuckooroller said:
Slightly confused on this one. The Clements 5° Ed. initially listed Nothoprocta kalinowskii as a monotypic good species. Subsequently, they lumped taxon kalinowskii with Nothoprocta ornata as a good race. The last that I had heard is that taxon kalinowskii was found to be a junior synonym of Nothoprocta ornata branickii and therefore eliminated. Now, in the Clements 6° Edition it has mystifyingly reappeared as a good species - Kalinowski's Tinamou (Nothoprocta kalinowskii) monotypic. I can find nothing corroborating the necessity of exhumation of this corpse. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Nothoprocta kalinowskii (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) is considered a synonym of N. ornata following Krabbe and Schulenberg (2005).
 
Hi Steve
Your thread is obviously very useful to anyone who has bought the new edition. I have not bothered - it would quickly (very quickly) get so filled with alterations that I have decided to stick with the 5th edition and my computerised version of the list.
To be honest I don't think many people will buy it. Maybe you are right and Howard and Moore will take over.
Not sure about Gill and Wright either. Calling Rough-legged Buzzard/Hawk just Rough-leg puts me off.

Steve
 
Listing sequence of Dendragapus species: Dendragapus obscurus; Dendragapus falcipennis; and Dendragapus fuliginosus.

The intent of the Clements would appear to consider Dendragapus obscurus more closely related to Dendragapus falcipennis, than to Dendragapus fuliginosus.

I must have missed something. I would appreciate anyone knowing of published scientific papers documenting this (sic) apparent closer relationship of obscurus and falcipennis to let me know.
 
No sign of New Zealand Storm-petrel

Bourne’s Heron is not listed (even as a subspecies)

The name Blue Grouse has been retained instead of re-adoption of Sooty Grouse

Two Whimbrel subspecies are missing

The new frogmouth genus isn’t there

Paraphyly of the broadbills hasn’t been addressed

The lumping of African & European Reed Warbler appears to have been overlooked

The Sylvias are out of sequence, and Parisoma is still present

They’ve got themselves in a real mess with the naming of Pallas’s warblers

The Australian chats haven’t been sunk into the Honeyeaters

Pseudopodoces – isn’t this out of sequence?

Likewise the position of the new Pink-tailed Rosefinch family – if it’s supposed to be basal to the nine-primaried oscines, what’s it doing after the tanagers?

I have lots more things noted but they fall into Steve’s banned “taxonomic missed opportunities” category.
 
Hi Steve,

Yes, there is quite a lot wrong with this edition as you have been noticing.

The reason that I have wanted to restrict this thread to only annotation of obvious mistakes, or to queries on possible mistakes is so that people may check the thread and not have to wade through a huge volume of sometimes rather esoteric and abstruse argumentations regarding what should have been included as updates. As you know, with the current upheaval in avian phylogenetics of just the last about five years sometimes the cutting-edge taxonomic changes that might be possible are not always unequivocal and there is room for discussion even among very knowledgeable avian phylogeneticists. It is certainly not always clear-cut when a race should be split and elevated to specific status.

I might suggest that this type of discourse, and there is certainly a need for it, might be relegated to the already established thread - Clements Updates.
 
Thanks Steve for the heads-up. I am happy to see that someone from Cornell has been hearing the negative "buzz". I am not one seeking the fatidic "one list", just better to have two more or less authoritative and competing lists and the Clements sure has some catching-up to do after a very rocky start on the new edition.
 
Steve Lister said:
Hi Steve
Your thread is obviously very useful to anyone who has bought the new edition. I have not bothered - it would quickly (very quickly) get so filled with alterations that I have decided to stick with the 5th edition and my computerised version of the list.
To be honest I don't think many people will buy it. Maybe you are right and Howard and Moore will take over.
Not sure about Gill and Wright either. Calling Rough-legged Buzzard/Hawk just Rough-leg puts me off.

Steve
Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

Couldn't agree more! I will be awaiting (not holding my breath) for a more concise/error free edition. Also happy in the interim with the 5th Edition and my own list.

:smoke:
 
Page 696: which troupial is found in Puerto Rico? I assume it is Venezuelan?

Edit: And Page 672: no explanation of which race of Black-faced Grassquit is present in the Lesser Antilles (I believe the correct answer would be "omissus" present from PR to Tobago and the rest of the ranges given)

Niels
 
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Could I ask an off-topic question? Would someone who has the book already let me know how many species are listed under Albatross, and, if not too much trouble, how many under the petrels?

Thanks
 
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njlarsen said:
Page 696: which troupial is found in Puerto Rico? I assume it is Venezuelan?

Edit: And Page 672: no explanation of which race of Black-faced Grassquit is present in the Lesser Antilles (I believe the correct answer would be "omissus" present from PR to Tobago and the rest of the ranges given)

Niels
Click to expand...

Hi Niels,
The Troupial. Yes, it would be the Clements 6th Venezuelan. By rigor of logic (but have not seen a direct race reference) it would almost surely be race ridgwayi.

Tiaris: Yes, that is my take on the ranging race as well. omissus.
 
p623: Black-whiskered Vireo: missing description of it occurring between St. Croix and Barbados, as well as which subspecies actually occur there (I assume barbadensis).

Niels
 
I took the liberty of sending the address of this thread to the Cornell lab. This is the responce from John Fitzpatrick:

Hello Niels --
I appreciate this note very much. I had heard about this thread, but not its address. This thread, along with other input we're receiving directly, will be very helpful as we continue to accumulate corrections and, from time to time, post new ones on the Clements website. I can appreciate the frustration of some of those posting. We scientists at the Cornell Lab had negligible input on the text before it was printed.
For better or worse, this was pretty much a direct printing by Cornell Press of the completed 6th Edition manuscript left by Jim Clements. But now we ARE in charge of maintaining the database and posting corrections, which we are taking very seriously. I greatly appreciate any and all input, especially about outright errors or omissions. We'll do our best to post these comprehensively and on a regular basis.
Taxonomic changes and sequence changes we must deal with differently, and less frequently. Feel free to post this note on the birdforum thread if desired and appropriate.

John Fitzpatrick
Director, Cornell Lab of Ornithology


Cheers
Niels
 
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