Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!rex!uflorida!mephisto!prism!fsu!loligo!sandee From: sandee@loligo (Daan Sandee) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Latin names (was: Birding Magazines) Message-ID: <446@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Date: 12 Jan 90 18:55:59 GMT References: <2359@leah.Albany.Edu> <425@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <428@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <3736@nmtsun.nmt.edu> <433@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <5311@blake.acs.washington.edu> Sender: news@fsu.scri.fsu.edu Reply-To: sandee@loligo.UUCP (Daan Sandee) Organization: Florida State University Lines: 28 In article <5311@blake.acs.washington.edu> annmh@blake.acs.washington.edu (Ann Harrington) writes: >Speaking of Latin names of birds, does anyone know of a good small >handbook of same? Something that would give me a common name if I >knew the latin name would be very useful for certain translation >assignments that I have to do. I don't need descriptions or any >of the stuff that can be found in field guides, just a little >handbook of latin names/english (?) names. >-Ann >annmh@blake.acs.washington.edu a LITTLE handbook ? There are around 8,600 species of birds in the world. If you mean just the US, the Tucson Audubon Society has a handy checklist that would suit your needs. It is sorted taxonomically, not alphabetically, but with 950 species listed that shouldn't be too much of a problem. It sells for around $1.50. Call the ABA at (800) 634-7736 - they sell books over the phone. I assume you are translating serious scientific stuff. So you have to get it right. Unfortunately, for most parts of the world there isn't an authoritative English nomenclature. There are various Birds-of-the-World checklists - again, call the ABA, they'll know. Again, they're sorted taxonomically, and I wouldn't know what cross-index they have. Also, as you are at a university, the university library should have some good stuff, though probably wildly out of date. At least, that's the case with FSU. Daan Sandee sandee@sun6.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 (904) 644-7045