Laridae (2 Viewers)

[Xenospiza]

What about Silk Tern, from the German Seidenschwalbe used as a vernacular by Wagler 1832 when he coined Gygis?

They are called "opal tern" in Dutch.

 

[Xenospiza]

That, or Silky, has a great ring to it.

Too much confusion with Silky Flycatcher!

 

[Mysticete]

There is a big difference I think between unrelated birds sharing a basic name element (Like sparrow and oriole, as two examples), with two different species having the same entire or nearly entire common name, and at least partly overlapping in distribution. This would be like if there was a parulid warbler named Arctic Warbler, and a phylloscopid warbler also named Arctic Warbler, and both occurred in Western Alaska.

 

[Kirk Roth]

There is a big difference I think between unrelated birds sharing a basic name element (Like sparrow and oriole, as two examples), with two different species having the same entire or nearly entire common name, and at least partly overlapping in distribution. This would be like if there was a parulid warbler named Arctic Warbler, and a phylloscopid warbler also named Arctic Warbler, and both occurred in Western Alaska.

Well, pump the brakes a bit - nobody is proposing "Australasian Fairy Tern" and "Australasian Fairytern."

If the proposal goes through, the common names would be:

• "Australasian Fairy Tern" (Clements) or "Fairy Tern" (IOC) or "Fairy Tern (sometimes Austral Fairy Tern)/other continents are dead to us" SACC for the Sternula
• Atlantic Fairytern
• Common Fairytern
• Little Fairytern

To me, this would seem closer to "Tanager" or "Grosbeak" situations in Mexico for example, except (very slightly) clearer in written from due to the (very slight) syntax difference. I agree its dumb. But not yellow warbler/black vulture/dusky flycatcher dumb.

I love the inclusion of Douglas Pratt's observation that:

using "fairytern" will "allow non-professionals to maintain a beloved and widely used name without being scolded by pedants."

Nice try, Pratt!!

 

[Bowerbirder]

Is Fairy Tern the name long-used in Australia for the Sternula species?

Yes, it is.

 

[Taphrospilus]

I have a general question on nomenclature on the example Sterna magnirostris Lichtenstein. The name is listed Richmond Index -- species & subspecies Sterna acuflavida - Sturnopastor moorei four times. The 1818 names seemed to be Nomen nudum e.g.. Das zoologische Museum der Universität zu Berlin . Is in this case the name 1819 1816-17 - Abhandlungen der physikalischen Klasse der Königlich-Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften - Biodiversity Heritage Library the name which makes the name availble? Or makes this additional description the 1818 names availble. What is the opinion of the code? I hope I explained good enough my question. I unserstood it is a synonam to Phaetusa simplex.

 

[l_raty]

A name is available from the first work in which the requirements for availability are met.
Any earlier use of the name in a work where the requirements were not met is merely a 'failed' introduction -- i.e., it does not count.

First 1818 publication (Das zoologische Museum der Universität zu Berlin ): Das zoologische Museum der Universität zu Berlin. The name is certainly nude here.
I have never succeeded finding the second 1818 publication online (Verzeichniss von ausgestopften Säugethieren und Vögeln welche am 12ten October 1818 u. folg. Tage im zoologischen Museum der Königl. Universität zu Berlin).
1819 publication : 1816-17 - Abhandlungen der physikalischen Klasse der Königlich-Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften - Biodiversity Heritage Library
1823 publication : Verzeichniss der Doubletten des Zoologischen Museums der Königl. Universität zu Berlin - Biodiversity Heritage Library

The bird in question was called by Marcgrave "GVACAGVACV" Historia naturalis Brasiliae ... - Biodiversity Heritage Library , and was presumably Phaetusa simplex indeed, although the description is not exactly great.
The Richmond card suggests Lichtenstein referenced "guacaguaça, Marcgr." in the second 1818 publication. Assuming the card is correct, if you think this is sufficiently unambiguous to take you to Marcgrave's description, the name should be available from there under ICZN 12.2.1.

(Azara's "Hatis", also referenced by Lichtenstein in 1819 and 1823 : Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale.)

 

[Taphrospilus]

You can find the second here Bd.2-3=Jahrgang 1818:Bd.1-2:Heft.1-12 (1818) - Isis, oder, Encyclopädische Zeitung von Oken - Biodiversity Heritage Library

 

[l_raty]

You can find the second here Bd.2-3=Jahrgang 1818:Bd.1-2:Heft.1-12 (1818) - Isis, oder, Encyclopädische Zeitung von Oken - Biodiversity Heritage Library

No, this is merely a simplified version which appeared in Isis, while the actual thing should be a stand-alone booklet with more extensive information. It was described in Duplicates under the hammer: natural-history auctions in Berlin's early nineteenth-century collection landscape | The British Journal for the History of Science | Cambridge Core as follows :

His 1818 catalogue consists of a title page announcing the date, location, institutional organizer and acting auctioneer of the sale; a preface detailing the conditions of the sale; and thirty-nine pages of lots destined for sale. Each entry for a duplicate specimen had the same pattern: first, a lot number and the specimen’s Latin binomial name; an abbreviated name of the author to first describe the taxon; the sex of the specimen, if known; occasionally Latin, German or French synonyms; the region where it was collected, which could be as general as ‘Europe’ or as specific as the ‘Cape of Good Hope’; and sometimes a brief comment on its condition. Finally, an initial indicating the quality of the specimen as excellent, good, mediocre or bad, and the starting bid for a specimen in taler and groschen, concluded an entry (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Lichtenstein’s first auction catalogue printed in octavo (11 × 18 cm). [Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein], Verzeichniss von ausgestopften Säugethieren und Vögeln welche am 12ten October 1818 u. folg. Tage im zoologischen Museum der Königl. Universität zu Berlin durch den Königl. Auctionscommissarius Bratring dem Meistbietenden öffentlich verkauft werden sollen, Berlin: s.n., 1818, pp. 6–7. Reproduced with permission of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Historische Bild- und Schriftgutsammlungen.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Viralva Stephens, 1826 vs Gelochelidon Brehm, 1830

● (Laridae; syn. Chlidonias † Black Tern C. niger) "Viralva Stephens, in Shaw, 1826, General Zoology, XIII, (1), p. 166. Type, by subsequent designation (Strickland, 1841, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., VII (XLI), no. V, p. 40), Sterna nigra Linnaeus, 1758." (JAJ 2021).
● (Laridae; syn. Gelochelidon † Gull-billed Tern G. nilotica) "Viralva Stephens, in Shaw, 1826, General Zoology, XIII, (1), p. 166. Type, by subsequent designation (G. Gray, 1840, List Genera Birds, p. 79), V. anglica (Mont.), i.e. Sterna anglica Montague, 1813 = Sterna nilotica Gmelin, 1789." (JAJ 2021).

Shouldn't Gray's designation be a priority?

 

[l_raty]

The author of Viralva is Stephens. (Shaw had been dead for 13 years in 1826.)
Gray's designation was first, but Sterna anglica Montagu was included in Viralva by Stephens with a query (here : "Viralva? Anglica."), hence it is not eligible to be the type.

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

Gray's designation was first, but Sterna anglica Montagu was included in Viralva by Stephens with a query (here : "Viralva? Anglica."), hence it is not eligible to be the type.

Ok

The author of Viralva is Stephens. (Shaw had been death for 13 years in 1826.)

That's what I wrote 😏 promise, no cheating

 

[Mysticete]

Establish English names for three species of Gygis

Apparently SACC and NACC both voted to accept the 3 way White Tern/Fairytern split. Presumably it will be in the next IOC update?

 

[James Lowther]

Establish English names for three species of Gygis

Apparently SACC and NACC both voted to accept the 3 way White Tern/Fairytern split. Presumably it will be in the next IOC update?

It was shown as a WGAC split on Avibase so it’s an anticipated one
James

 

[raymie]

Establish English names for three species of Gygis

Apparently SACC and NACC both voted to accept the 3 way White Tern/Fairytern split. Presumably it will be in the next IOC update?

They'd better call them fairyterns or fairy-terns. The better name by far.

 

[Jacana]

Out if interest, what is the naming history on this. Why was "Fairy" attached to Sternula nereis and Gygis adopting "White"?

 

[Mysticete]

Bah...I used White Noddy in my checklist (Yes, I know they are not Noddies technically, but I figure Noddy is a decent name for early diverging relatives of true terns).

Honestly If they were to go with Fairytern I don't know why they don't simplify it to Fairy. Might as well go fully whimsy

 

[Xenospiza]

Using Fairy Tern for the White Terns is confusing, even if White Tern is boring.
They remind me more of ghosts than fairies anyway.

"Fairy" is already used (and fitting) for Heliothryx.

 

[raymie]

Using Fairy Tern for the White Terns is confusing, even if White Tern is boring.

That's why you make it one word, "fairytern" or "fairy-tern". No more confusing than "Rock Pigeon", give the existence of Petrophassa.

 

[Mysticete]

That's why you make it one word, "fairytern" or "fairy-tern". No more confusing than "Rock Pigeon", give the existence of Petrophassa.

Several (all?) checklists have literally changed Rock Pigeon back to Rock Dove for just this reason.