Dear All,
I am amazed by the constant outbreaks of ornithological Hansonism
that pops up in B-Aus when it comes to bird names. The
International Ornithological Union (IOU) is an international body
of prominent professional ornithologists ( some 200) who, among
many other things, arbitrate on the common names of birds. The
membership of the IOU can be seen at
http://int-ornith-union.org/IOUmembers.html
Among the members of the IOU are Dr. Richard Schodde and Dr.
Walter Boles, both of who seem to know a thing or two about birds.
The publication "Birds of the World : Recommended English Names" by
Gill & Wright is published on behalf of the IOU and is "a volunteer
project with worldwide participation by birders and professional
ornithologists". The goal of this publication is "to facilitate
worldwide communication in ornithology and conservation through the
consistent use of English names linked to current species taxonomy.
The English names follow explicit guidelines for spelling and
construction that increase clarity of application", so it it is not
an ivory tower publicaton, but a collaboration between amateur and
professional ornithologists. On those grounds I think it is
reasonable to regard BOTW as the standard list of common English
language names world wide. If anyone can come up with a rational
argument as to why this should not be so, I would be very
interested in hearing it.
As for Scientific names and species status, the Index of Organism
Names (ION), see http://www.organismnames.com/ , which ION
contains the organism names related data gathered from the
scientific literature for Thomson Reuters' Zoological Record®
database. Viruses, bacteria and plant names will be added from
other Thomson Reuters databases such as BIOSIS Previews® and
Biological Abstracts® " is the repository for all currently
accepted species of everything. If it lives and has been named, it
is in ION.
There is a well established mechanism for the common names of birds
and whether a species is a species, so why not stick to it, as it
seems to work well.
All we need to do now is to try and get a single Avian taxonomy up
and accepted, but I don't think any of us will see that in our
lifetimes.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
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