Nomenclature of Birds 



Ihis is the list of birds mentioned in the foregoing discus- 

 sions. These fall into three categories : those observed as transients, those to 

 which other authors have referred, and those I have studied intimately. It would 

 be quite improper to give exact racial identification for the first two categories, 

 and I have been as conservative as possible in the binomial listing. In the water- 

 fowl, however, I have tried to be precise and modern, following the classification 

 suggested by Delacour and Mayr (1945) as presented by Scott (1951), acknowl- 

 edging Delacour's (1954) more recent treatment of the geese. 



Throughout the text I have capitalized the common name as given in the 

 A.O.U. Checklist of North American Birds, 4th edition, 1931, with only a few 

 modifications. I have referred simply to Junco and to Flicker, rather than to 

 Slate-colored Junco and Northern Flicker, as there has been visual evidence that 

 not all these abundant migrants are of the same race. Nor have I held to the 

 geographic adjectives, such as American Coot, where Coot alone seemed clear 

 and sufficient. Every school child in Manitoba knows the Red-winged Blackbird, 

 but only a few citizens are aware of the Giant Red-wing; hence I have held to the 

 older name. In general, the common name has been more stable than the Latin, 

 but even here there are some puzzles. Moffitt (1937) wrote of the White-cheeked 

 Goose, which is the Western Canada Goose of Scott and the Vancouver Canada 

 Goose of Delacour. Should Shoveller be spelled with two Ts, as by Delacour and 

 Mayr (1945) and by the Canadian Wildlife Service, or with one I, as by Scott 

 ( 1951 ) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? Shall Wigeon (for Anas penelope) 

 retain its European heredity, which lacks the d; or when speaking of the bird as 

 North Americans, shall we hold with the American Ornithologists' Union and call 

 it Widgeon? 



On page 239 of the text I mentioned that only one North American game duck 

 showed subspecific variation. This may not be entirely true as things now stand. 

 The Green-winged Teal apparently has a subspecies on the Aleutian Islands, 

 Anas crecca nimia, while there may be a Pacific and an Atlantic race of the White- 

 winged Scoter, Melanitta fusca dixoni and M. /. deglandi. Balancing these minor 

 divisions there is the conservative revision of the Harlequin Duck, whereby the 

 birds of the eastern and western ranges are now considered to be of one and the 



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