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From: jhiggott@zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk (jeff higgott)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: English & Latin Bird Names
Message-ID: <1990Jan15.135014.11727@axion.bt.co.uk>
Date: 15 Jan 90 13:50:14 GMT
References: <53546@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Sender: news@axion.bt.co.uk
Reply-To: jhiggott@zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs
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From article <53546@oliveb.olivetti.com>, by mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser):
> In article <1990Jan10.212757.22128@utzoo.uucp>, rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) writes:
>> 
>> Of course the NA English common names change, too ... 
>> Some of these changes are made in an attempt to obtain conformity
>> with English usage (e.g., Common Gallinule to Common Moorhen--although
>> the British simply call it the Moorhen!).  
>                                  ^^^^^^^
> 
> 	It seems that the British had this habit of giving the generic
> family name as the common english name to those birds represented in
> Britain by a single species of the family. Other examples are the Wren,
> the Jay, and the Nuthatch. In North America we know the Wren as the
> Winter Wren, in order to tell it from the eight other wren species that
> we have. 
> 

Bear in mind that _T. troglodytes_ was named the Wren long before 
taxonomists had stumbled across another few related species in the States.
Similarly, Nuthatch and Jay are old names for familiar, common British
birds, named long before there was a full understanding (or even discovery?)
of other taxonomically related birds.  It is really not the "British"
who had/have the "habit of giving the generic  family name as the common 
english name to those birds represented in Britain by a single species of
the family", but the English speaking who want to use the English
vernacular name of a common British species as the `family' name for a 
group of related species.


> 	I think that the AOU has taken some decent strides recently in
> trying to standardize the common english names used in North America
> with those being used in other parts of the world. Some more examples
> would be Black-Shouldered Kite, Northern Harrier, American Kestrel,
> and Merlin; just to name a few raptors. However, it seems that the
> BOU would have to reciprocate a little in order to alleviate the some-
> what confusing situation mentioned above.

 "Northern" harrier is still known as Hen Harrier in Britain.

The BOU is currently making moves to standardise the English names of 
West Palearctic birds.  A subject that can be debated ad nauseum.
For example, is it sensible to change the name of _Melanitta nigra_ from
Common Scoter (because it is not the most common scoter over the whole of
its range) to Black Scoter (as the Americans call it) - True, M. nigra
is black, but so are the drakes of all the other scoters.  So is this
name any more useful?  [This problem may never arise as there are 
murmerings of the American subspecies being split from the European one.]

Jeff...