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ibri, sans-serif" style=3D"font-size: 11pt;"><b>From:</b> naturens-owner@
On 11/18/2016 11:34 AM, Laviolette, Lance wrote:
> Perisoreus canadensis canadensis, that's a lot of Canadian content
packed into one bird. Inevitably a name had to be chosen for the species
and Canada Jay could have been the name. For the majority of Canadians,
subspecies are not differentiated but if an English name was needed for
P. c. canadensis subspecies then it could have been Gray Jay.
> ...agree with Wayne. To paraphrase Frodo Baggins, the name was taken
and hidden away, never to be spoken of again. However, like that famous
gold ring he was speaking of, Canada Jay keeps popping up again in the
memory of Canadian birders.
* well, under the rules necessary for the process of forming english
names for species the AOU couldn't elevate the subspecific 'Canada Jay'
to be the name of the species. For one simple example of the kind of
trouble this would have caused (besides the confusion of whether species
or subspecies was meant in a particular text), P. c. obscurus was the
'Oregon Jay' and making 'Canada Jay' the name for the whole species
would have tied Oregonians' knickers in a knot - and you know how
sensitive birders are about their knickers.
What the species needs is a proper study to see if any of the so-called
subspecies have any reality, or if they're just geographic variation in
colour and size.
...and look at the parts of Canada where the Bird was never known as
Canada Jay (from the wikipedia list of subspecies): northeastern British
Columbia and northwestern Alberta southeastward, east of the Rocky
Mountains to South Dakota; the Rainbow Mountains area, and headwaters of
the Dean and Bella Coola Rivers of the central Coast Ranges, British
Columbia; Anticosti Island, Quebec; southeastern British Columbia,
southwestern Alberta; southwestern British Columbia and Vancouver Island
south through central Washington; northern Quebec (Fort Chimo, Whale
River, and George River), throughout Labrador, and in southeastern
Quebec. Thinking 'Canada Jay' was the name of the species all across
Canada is a misremembering of what names were used for the subspecies.
> Common names were rarely, if ever, universal so that fact that
Wi-akajak, Wìsakedjàk, Wīhsakecāhkw, Wiisagejaak, Inktonme, Nanabozho,
Whiskey Jack, Camp Robber, Gray Jay, Meat Bird, White-headed Jay, Oregon
Jay and numerous others have been used to identify this species is not
important to this discussion. What is important is that not only is Gray
Jay a bland, non-inspiring choice of an English name for such a great
bird but in its current form it is spelled incorrectly for Canadian
consumption.
* I'm sure they spell 'colour' 'color' in the AOU Checklist. On the
other hand, in grade 2 in Connecticut I was taught that grey/gray was
the one case where there were alternative acceptable spellings for a
word, but it seems 'grey' has gone down the tubes in the USA since then,
or maybe it was just a New England thing.
> The French name has it right, Mésangeai du Canada and it’s time the
English name moved out of the last century and into the present one.
* I've worried about this for years, and have decided, since vernacular
names should, if they're meant to be vernacular, be harvested rather
than invented, to just use 'Whiskey Jack.'
> There are few enough birds with Canada as part of their name but a
whole lot with American. I know it is SUPPOSED to stand for North
American but I always imagine American (as in the United States of
AMERICA) Ornithologists quietly laughing about it behind closed doors.
Would bringing the number of birds with Canada in their name back up to
the enormous total of three really be that much of a crime?
* but the real preponderance is in the other direction, if you consider
the scientific names, which is how we're supposed to reference species
if we're to be understood. Vernacular names are really just a
recreational aspect of the study of cultural traditions.
fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Fragile Inheritance Natural History
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
Vulnerable Watersheds - http://vulnerablewaters.blogspot.ca/
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
4 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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