Every writer enjoys receiving comments because it means that someone is reading one's work. But the commentators here seem to have missed the point - perhaps I was not clear. We have to have consistent names for things in order to effectively communicate. The AOS, a group of ornithological professionals, has the responsibility for the common names of birds in North and Central America. It does not name states, counties, rivers, diseases or the like. Just birds.
If, for example, the citizens of Thurston County want to rename their county (Prairie County sounds good to me), it's up to us. AOS will have no say in the matter. Hopefully, if such a change process is initiated, it will include discussion of "what's in a name" and the realization that the name of anything, including our county, is important.
Will we ever know when the renaming process is final? Probably not, but so what? If there's any certain lesson from the bird common name kerfuffle, it's that what was acceptable and benign 150 years ago may be harmful today. The same may occur 150 years in the future.
FordPrefect asks whether avian taxonomic names are going to be "safe" from change (implying, I imagine, that the AOS proposal is a disease that might be catching). I briefly hinted in my column that taxonomic names are subject to different rules and would not be changed. Here are the details.
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is in charge. Taxonomic names are subject to an agreed set of quasi-judicial rules and, if there is a naming dispute, the ICZN arbitrates and resolves the issue. Using these rules, when researchers are convinced that they have discovered a new species, they submit details and a type specimen to their International professional organization for review. They also submit a preferred name, in Latinized form.
The date of this submittal determines the priority of the name submitted. That's the point of my writing about the name Geothlypis tolmiei having precedence. Audubon could only influence the common name of MacGillivray's Warbler, not the taxonomic name, since his submittal came years after the initial description of the species. Official nomenclature is secure from changes except ones that are required by change the professionals understanding of biological placement of the animal (for example, merging or splitting species or subspecies).
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