a quiz

[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

Which of the following is the correct spelling of a CO bird named after a professor of English at Edinburgh University in Scotland, who was also a naturalist, and who helped none other than John James Audubon with his writing?

a) MaGillvray's

b) McGillivray's

c) MacGillivary's

d) MacGillivray's

e) McGillvrey's

f) MacGillavrey's

g) MacGillvray's

Hint: the bird was named (by Audubon) after William MacGillivray.  Maybe Bob Righter will be kind enough to tell us more about this interesting man, who certainly deserves us getting his name right, in a future piece for "Colorado Birds".  I hope so.



Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins

[Ted Floyd]

On Thursday, May 28, 2015 at 7:00:05 PM UTC-6, Dave Leatherman wrote:

Hint: the bird was named (by Audubon) after William MacGillivray.  Maybe Bob Righter will be kind enough to tell us more about this interesting man, who certainly deserves us getting his name right, in a future piece for "Colorado Birds".  I hope so.

Not so fast! Here's news from the AOU:

• MacGillivray’s Warbler becomes McGillivary’s Warbler. This one surprised me. I’d heard about changing the species’ name to Tolmie’s Warbler (see Harold Eyster’s article in the January 2011 Birding, “MacGillivray’s Warbler: The Name That Shouldn’t Be,” pp. 38–42). But as Sila Thiew, a spokeswoman for The Consortium writes, “At least half of all birders spell that name wrong. So we decided to go for the path of least resistance, and just adopt the commonest mispeplling [sic].”

Full details here:

http://birding.typepad.com/aba/2012/04/the-politics-of-checklist-instability.html

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado

P.s. With Andrew Floyd, I had a three-Spinus episode yesterday evening, Thurs., May 28. The bird were in flight and perched in trees at one of the ballfields in Lafayette, Boulder County: Pine Siskin, Lesser Goldfinch, American Goldfinch. Curious to have all three like that out on the "Plains," so to speak, of eastern Boulder County.

 

Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins