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STELLER IS NOT STELLAR

Aarghh!
 
The UCB's spelling of Steller is not stellar!
 
Species such as Steller's Jay, Steller's Sea Eagle, Steller's Eider, Steller's Sea Lion and the extinct Steller's Sea Cow were named after the young German naturalist-physician Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709-1746) who accompanied the Danish sailor Captain-Commander Vitus Bering on his ill-fated exploratory voyage from Siberia to the coast of Alaska in 1741.
 
There are multiple misspellings of Steller's name on the UCB website - at least 25 according to Google.  In honor of Steller's pioneering work on the natural history of the North Pacific region, let's all make a New Year's resolution to spell his name correctly in 2003!
 
For those interested in reading more about this controversial man, here are a couple of links:
http://international.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfdiscvry/steller.html
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/nature/nw99/steller.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct25.html
http://home.conceptsfa.nl/~pmaas/stellersseacow.htm
 
There's even a school in Anchorage named after Steller (http://www.asd.k12.ak.us/schools/Steller/Welcome.html):
The school was named after George Wilhelm Steller, a German naturalist who traveled with Vitus Bering on his voyage of exploration to Alaska, in 1741. He became the school's namesake because of such personal traits as independence, love of knowledge, courage, and a pioneering spirit.
There is also an excellent book about Steller and the Alaskan expedition (that I appropriately bought in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea!);  it's a very good read:
Where the Sea Breaks Its Back: The Epic Story of Early Naturalist Georg Steller and the Russian Exploration of Alaska
by Corey Ford, Lois Darling (Illustrator)
The book is available in the Salt Lake City Library (and by interlibrary loan).  Also new from www.amazon.com for only $10.47.
 
Herewith endeth the lesson.
 
Happy New Year to all and Good Birding,
Jim McIntyre