Phil,
Seeing as the Americans have claimed naming rights to the Neo-
tropical species, it is only natural for them to assume they have the
right to re-name species in the rest of the world. Unfortunately, so
many Ornthologist/Birders in the rest of the world roll over and take
it.
It is about time that those in the Ornithological world outside the
USA started a concerted letter writing campaign to the Editors and
publishers of Clements, Howard and Moore, the American
Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the American Birding Association
(ABA) and say in effect "sorry, but you are wrong on these names" and
point out that the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) is
the only body which has the acclamation of the rest of the world to
be the Authority on Avian Nomenclature, both Scientific and Common. I
do not care what the Americans name their own birds, but I do care
about unwarranted and unwanted meddling with the names of the birds
of other countries. An indication of the contempt that the AOU and
the ABA has for the rest of the Ornithological world is their lack of
representation on the IOC.
It is a pity that the editors and publishers of Clements and Howard
and Moore do not place a disclaimer in the prefaces or introductions
of the books stating that the contents are entirely the opinions of
the editors/publishers and should not be taken as authorotative.
Well that's vented my spleen,
Viva El IOC,
Carl Clifford
On 05/01/2008, at 11:32 PM, Phil & Sue Gregory wrote:
" Thus we basically have American renamings of a host of Australasian
and Africa birds, without much (if any) consultation, and ignoring
the well established local names of the birds in the places where
they actually live."
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