"Common" Gull

Rick Blom (rblom@blazie.com)
Sun, 25 Jan 1998 05:31:48 -0500 

Phil:

        Its not likely to be much of a war, what with everyone else hitting
the delete key as soon as they see the header...
        Irrespective of how the AOU worded their account (now there is
arrogance on my part), the European bird is still correctly referred to,
anywhere in the world, as Common Gull. First, the name has precedence,
dating from 1758. The name Mew dates from 1831. To say Common is
technically an indentifiable form of Mew is backards. Mew, discovered and
named later, is technically an identifiable form of Common. (Actually, and
I say this without offering any proof - it is a separate species and there
is no doubt it will be treated as one before long). Mew was orginally
described as a separate species and then lumped. When it was, we should
have reverted to the name Common, but we are a bit jingoistic and are
attached to our names (witness loon vs diver and jaeger vs skua).
        Calling the bird Mew is redolent of the silliness we exhibited when
we changed the name of Peregrine Falcon to Duck Hawk and Merlin to Pigeon
Hawk just to show we were not in thrall to the rest of the Europeans.
        Actually, it is just tradition and conservatism. We do not like to
change well established names, even when they are wrong. Neither do the
Europeans. Ther are having a fit over the suggestion that they change the
name Swallow to Barn Swallow.

        Have at....

Rick

PS _ I've sent a note to a member of the AOU Check-List Committee. If he
agrees with me I'll pass it along. If he doesn't, I'll deny under oath that
I ever got it unless the special prosecutor agrees to a deal...

Phil Davis wrote, in part:
>
>In the sixth edition, Larus canus is "officially" (per the AOU) given the
>common name of "MEW GULL".  At the end of the species account there is a
>note that reads: "Also known as COMMON or SHORT-BILLED GULL". ... Some
>(possibly most) Atlantic coast records are referable to the European L. c.
>canus ..."
>
>I think that until the AOU splits L. canus into two or more species, L. c.
>canus is still technically an identifiable form of the MEW GULL, called the
>COMMON GULL ... at least as far as us Norde Americanos are concerned.

>... your turn ...



"Everywhere I go I'm asked if the university stifles writers. My opinion is
that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could
have been prevented by a good teacher."  Flannery O'Connor

Rick Blom
rblom@blazie.com
Bel Air, Maryland