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From: deby@cs.utwente.nl (Rolf de By)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: European vs. American Bird Names
Message-ID: <1991Apr13.111608@cs.utwente.nl>
Date: 13 Apr 91 09:16:08 GMT
References: <1991Apr11.120249.8804@verdix.com>
Sender: deby@cs (Rolf de By)
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Lines: 64
Originator: deby@utis98


In article <1991Apr11.120249.8804@verdix.com>, edm@verdix.com (Ed Matthews) writes:
|> Just going through my lists recently trying to make certain my world list
|> is up-to-date.  Ran into a couple of confusions that perhaps one of you 
|> will be able to help with.  Two birds in question: one a gannet, the other
|> a snipe.  The gannet on my England list is Sula bassana, while our common
|> Northern Gannet here in the States is Morus bassanus.  The snipe on my
|> Ireland list is Gallinago gallinago, while its counterpart on my ABA area
|> list is Capella gallinago.  Both pairs of birds look superficially similar
|> to me -- similar enough to wonder if they have been reclassified.  Can
|> anyone tell me whether these are in fact dissimilar species?  Thanks.

Ed, they are the same species, but it seems that your American list holds
somewhat old-fashioned Latin genus names (well, at least to me it seems, but
I am european). The generally accepted list in Europe is that of Voous, which
is slightly outdated but is accepted as a basis for taxonomic ordering as well
as scientific naming.

I haven't looked up things (my bird books being at home) but if my memory
serves me well, the Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) has distinct subspecies
in Europe and North-America, and there is a slight possibility that they may
eventually become separate species. I remember having seen only one Snipe
on the breeding grounds in North America (Algonquin NP, Ontario) and I must
admit that at least their display flight and sound was completely different
from its European congener. The sound I heard in Canada reminded me of a
Tengmalm's Owl (Aegolius funereus), but I don't know whether that's the usual
mating call. Over here there are two common sounds, one of them being made
by the two outermost tail feathers (drumming) in a steep descent.

By the way, some additional splits are on their way over here in Europe. The
ones that come directly to my mind are

Yellow-legged Gull	Larus cachinnans (split from L. argentatus)
  (this species includes the Mediterranean michahellis group)
Armenian Gull		Larus armenicus (idem)
   (breeds in Turkey and vicinity, winters for instance in Israel)
Water Pipit & Rock Pipit Anthus spinoletta & A. littoralis
   (over here Water Pipit is mountain species, Rock Pipit a coast species)
Hume's Warbler		Phylloscopus humei (split from P. inornatus)
   (the place of P. (inornatus) mandelli is unclear, inornatus is a regular
    but somewhat rare autumn bird, humei is much rarer with perhaps 20 or
    30 records ever in western Europe (also in autumn); both breed in Central
    Asia, but inornatus much nearer)
American & Lesser Golden Plover
    (this you will know better than me, I guess)

and possibly others (but this is much less clear); the most important possible
split to an American who is visiting Europe (or has visited Europe) is that of

American Scoter		Melanitta americana
    (possibly to be split from our Common Scoter (M. nigra))

In any case, the British are more conservative (as usual), and the above
cases are therefore not generally agreed upon.

Rolf

-- 
Rolf A. de By
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