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Bird- Lore 



^irtJ-Eore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. X 



Published October 1, 1908 No. 5 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

 twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, post- 

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, I908, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto : 



A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



The time is approaching when the 

 Committee of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union will determine what changes, 

 if any, are required in the common names 

 of North American birds in the new 

 ' Check-List.' We have invited and have 

 received some correspondence on this im- 

 portant subject, but our contributors have, 

 it seems to us, recommended more changes 

 than it is desirable to make. 



Granted that it would be possible to 

 supply half our birds with more appro- 

 priate names than they now possess, if the 

 present 'Check-List' name has been gen- 

 erally accepted, and is in common use, it 

 should be retained. On the other hand, 

 if the 'Check-List' name is not the one 

 by which the species is generally known, 

 the Committee should adopt the one most 

 frequently applied to it. This rule, how- 

 ever, should be applied with discrimina- 

 tion, for it is not desirable to abandon 

 terms in standing with people of educa- 

 tion for the vernacular of the hunter. 

 For example, 'Roseate Spoonbill' should 

 not, in our opinion, give way to ' Pink 

 Curlew,' by which name this bird is 

 known in Florida. But 'Anhinga,' which 

 must be explained whenever it is used out- 

 side an ornithological audience, might 

 well be replaced by the commonly em- 

 ployed ' Water Turkey,' or ' Snakebird.' 



In preparing the first edition of the 

 'Check-List' (1886), the Committee had 

 many cases of this kind to act upon, and 

 its decisions, on the whole, were made 

 with excellent judgment. In some instances, 



however, the public have not adopted the 

 A. O. U. Committee's name, and, in the 

 forthcoming edition of their work, it 

 might be good policy for them to ac- 

 knowledge their failure by adopting the 

 current name of the species in question. 



The ' Snowy Heron ' [Egretta candi- 

 dissima), as an aigrette-bearing bird, is 

 just as much an Egret as the 'American 

 Egret' (Herodias egretta) and is certainly 

 more deserving the term than the ' Red- 

 dish Egret' {Dichromanassa rufescens) 

 of the ' Check-List.' In Florida it bears 

 the name Egret, in common with the 

 larger white bird (egretta), and there seems 

 to be abundant reason for changing 

 'Snowy Heron' to 'Snowy Egret' in the 

 new ' Check- List.' 



'Bartramian Sandpiper' is another 

 name which the public has done well to 

 reject. The case is complicated, for to 

 adopt the vernacular 'Upland Plover,' 

 would apparently place a Plover among 

 the Sandpipers; but, if we are to have a 

 book name, let us compromise on Upland 

 Sandpiper and relieve the bird of its 

 Bartramian handicap. 



Personally, we should like to see the 

 name ' Semi-palmated Plover,' by which 

 no one but an ornithologist calls the 

 bird, abolished for the more generally 

 known and more descriptive ' Ring-necked 

 Plover.' The fact that several species 

 have ringed necks should not deprive us 

 of the use of the name, while the ' Ring 

 Plover' of our 'List' occupies too limited 

 an area in America to be considered in 

 this connection. 



All the various species of 'Partridge,' 

 which are invariably called 'Quail' by 

 the people of the country they inhabit, 

 should, we think, be called ' Quail ; ' the 

 'Green-crested Flycatcher' should be 

 given its former name of ' Acadian Fly- 

 catcher,' the 'Leucostictes' should be 

 known as 'Snow Finches,' Louisiana 

 Tanager should become ' Western Tana- 

 ger ; ' for obvious reasons, the ' Water- 

 Thrush,' 'Northern Water-Thrush.' and 

 the formal 'Wilson's Thrush' may well 

 be abandoned for the more poetic and 

 suitable ' Veery.' 



