A little game . . .

[Mark Stackhouse <westwings at sisna dot com>]

O.K., it's really stormy outside, so how about a little indoor birding 
fun, aside from watching the feeders (though that's been pretty good at 
my place lately - I had a delightful White-breasted Nuthatch today). 
Here's a little game - see how many you can get.

I received a really wonderful Christmas gift from a most unlikely 
source - the father of my daughter's boyfriend. It seems as though he 
found an old copy of Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds at an 
estate sale recently, and, knowing I'm a birder, picked it up for me. 
As it turns out, it's a first-edition from 1941 - predating the copy I 
used as a child by twenty years. It's a wonderful book - truly a 
remarkable work for it's time. One thing that I've found fascinating is 
looking at all of the old names that were used back then. We've all 
been driven a bit crazy with new names and splits, so maybe it's time 
to have some fun with it.

Of course, some of our "new" names can be found in these old pages - 
Spotted and Canyon Towhees are there, for example, as is Wilson's 
Snipe. Other names are only slightly different, like White-faced Glossy 
Ibis and Flammulated Screech Owl. It's also interesting that there are 
Cackling, Lesser and Common Canada Geese. There's only one Dowitcher 
(wouldn't that make life easier!). But there's quite a few that all but 
the really "old-timers" amongst us might have trouble recognizing.

Here's a list of names I pulled from the book that are different than 
the name used today. Some are a bit obvious, while others are almost 
completely unintelligible. Try your hand at this list. How many can you 
name by their current, AOU name? You can send replies to me or to 
Birdtalk, I'll post a list of the answers in a few days. By the way, 
all but a few of these are on the Utah checklist, those that aren't 
I've marked with an asterisk (*), and, just to keep you honest, you'll 
see that I've mixed up the order a bit :-).

Good luck!

Mark

Mark Stackhouse
Westwings, Inc.
westwings@sisna.com
801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)

Short-billed Gull
Man-O'-War Bird
Audubon's Warbler
American Egret
Whistling Swan
Rocky Mountain Jay
Leucosticte
Baldpate
Mexican Goshawk*
Dusky Grouse
Pileolated Warbler
Willow Thrush
Alaska Longspur
Pigeon Hawk
Desert Sparrow
Long-tailed Chat
Sparrow Hawk
Mexican Crested Flycatcher
Arkansas Goldfinch
Marsh Hawk
Sage Hen
Calaveras Warbler
Holboell's Grebe
Franklin's Grouse*
Mearn's Quail*
Florida Gallinule
Linnet
Red-backed Sandpiper
Sharpe's Seedeater
Red-bellied Hawk
Northern Phalarope
Hudsonian Curlew
Green-backed Goldfinch
Rivoli's Hummingbird
Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker*
Wright's Flycatcher
Plain Titmouse
Western Gnatcatcher
Oregon Jay*
California Jay
Russet-backed Thrush
Myrtle Warbler
American Scoter
Sennett's Warbler*
Duck Hawk
Grinnell's Waterthrush
Plumbeous Gnatcatcher

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