Patty (and others) There was a, um, rather, shall we say, LENGHTY thread on this topic about a month ago on BirdChat. You may be interested in looking at the archives. The gist is that: a) there is an attempt to make ABA names sync with English (of the European sort) names. The very clever and creative English name is Long-tailed Duck. b) there is some percieved racial irritibility in the name. IMHO: the name is neat, let's keep it. I've had several Native American friends who saw little harm in the word squaw, and in this context it isn't referring directly to a human. Besides, how would this differ from either of the Pintailed ducks? Charlie Muise --- Patty Craig <pattycraig@mail.ameritel.net> wrote: > Could someone please tell me the reason behind > changing "Oldsquaw" to > "Long-tailed Duck". It is very upsetting to me > to contemplate yet > another bird species named for the male alone. > > Thanks, > Patty Craig > Dameron, MD > pattycraig@mail.ameritel.net > > ===== ****************************** Charlie Muise, Naturalist Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary Maryland, USA cmmbirds@yahoo.com "Leave the gun; take the cannoli" ****************************** __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. All in one place. Yahoo! Shopping: http://shopping.yahoo.com