Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!dmark
From: dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Name that bird; I have one
Summary: it is OK to be picky as long as you're RIGHT!
Keywords: picky, picky, picky
Message-ID: <8919@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 1 Aug 89 01:29:33 GMT
References: <20890@cup.portal.com> <8904@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <2135@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu>
Reply-To: dmark@sunybcs.UUCP (David Mark)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Geography
Lines: 37

In article <2135@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> amber@scott.UUCP () writes:
>Sorry to be so picky, but Juvenal was a Roman satirical poet.  Juvenile
>is what some people would like to be after that hit some dreaded age.

"JUVENAL.  Term applied in ornithology to the plumage of a young bird that
comes in immediately after, or succeeding, its natal down. ...
   Some passerines, or songbirds-- for example, sharp-tailed sparrows and
seaside sparrows-- wear their juvenal plumage for 2 or 3 months, but most
songbirds lose it shortly after leaving the nest by molting all the body
feathers into the postjuvenal (prebasic) or first-winter plumage of the
so-called immature bird."  [Terres, J.K. (ed), 1980, "The Audubon Society
Encyclopedia of North American Birds", p. 562]

"JUVENILE.  See definition under Nestling."  [op cit., p. 562]

"NESTLING.  ... ... ...  According to Wood (1946), a juvenile is a young bird
that is out of the nest and able to care for itself but has not completed its
postjuvenal molt."  [op cit., p. 626]

Here's another authority:

"... Reference is frequently made in the descriptions in this book to juvenal
plumage.  This is the first plumage acquired after natal down.  The juvenal
plumage is usually worn but a short time, and is not to be confused with the
term "juvenile," which is applied to any immature bird and its plumage at
any stage."  [Godfrey, W.E., 1986, "The Birds of Canada (Revised Edition)",
p. 12]

So, to be really correct, I should have said a "Brown-headed Cowbird in
juvenal plumage" or a "juvenal-plumaged cowbird", since only the plumage
can be juvenal, and not the bird itself.

(I wonder what Juvenal-the-Roman-satirical-poet would have to say about all
this?

David Mark
dmark@cs.buffalo.edu