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Or
indeed we should recognise, understand and be tolerant of that there are so many
species, we should not expect or even hope that all species names could ever be
completely accurate, appropriate and correct. So I think I agree with Mark that
it is impractical to change all these things to suit the occasional extra bit of
information. Actually I don't see the problem for ordinary use within Australia
for the Koel, as there is one species here. The names for birds are generally
pretty good by comparison to other major groups of fauna. For what it is worth,
it would be hard to imagine that Great
Crested Tern & Greater Crested Tern would be different
species, having raised it I was glad that Mark clarified that they are the same.
Philip
Geoffrey,
In
light of the BA English naming committee rejecting the name Pacific Koel ....”
However
C&B expressly rejected that name as the species occurs in places (e.g. parts
of Indonesia) that were clearly not in the ‘Pacific’. “.... how then
does it treat the Pacific Black Duck (I saw them in Sulawesi earlier this year)
which has a similar distribution to the Pacific (and I use this name because it
is far more descriptive than Eastern Koel “orientalis” notwithstanding)
Koel. Similarly the Pacific Swallow also occurs widely in Asia (with some recent
subspecific elevations). Does this mean we should be renaming birds such
as the Australian Pelican – it gets to Indonesia, South Island Pied
Oystercatcher because it has been recorded in Australia, Siberian Rubythroat
because I saw it in India, and no doubt countless other species. How are species
such as the Swift tern, Crested Tern , Great Crested Tern, Greater Crested Tern
treated – what was the original name given to the bird when first described? For
those who don’t follow taxonomy, the tern is all the same
species.
Methinks
the BA committee is being far too politically correct and needs a good swift
kick where it might knock some sense into them. It is interesting that more and
more people are using the up to date IOC list rather than the now well out of
date C&B list to keep their bird lists – see the Birding-aus forum from a
month or so ago.
Mark
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