The answers to "The little game"

[Mark Stackhouse <westwings at sisna dot com>]

If you still want to make a try at this list of names, close this e-mail now.

Thanks to all of those who took the time to try to match the current (AOU) names with these names from the 1941 original edition of Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds. Several people did quite well, though no one got them all correct. Tim Gorman had the most correct, with Harry Krueger second and Tim Avery third. Good job!

Here's the answers, and a bit of explanation for some:

Short-billed Gull - Mew Gull
Man-O'-War Bird - Magnificent Frigatebird
Audubon's Warbler - Yellow-rumped Warbler, in part (the western, yellow-throated sub-species)
American Egret - Great Egret
Whistling Swan - Tundra Swan
Rocky Mountain Jay - Gray Jay, in part; this is one of three different subspecies of Gray Jay that Peterson names as full species, the others are Canada Jay and Oregon Jay. This is the one that occurs here in Utah.
Leucosticte - Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch. Most people guessed this as simply Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte is the genus name for the Rosy-Finches), but Peterson gave this name specifically to what we know as Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch. There are actually four species of rosy-finches recognized by Peterson in 1941. He splits Hepburn's Rosy-Finch from Gray-crowned. The rosy-finches were three species until they were lumped in the wave of lumping that swept over the AOU in the 70's that also joined the flickers, the juncos, Audubon and Myrtle Warblers and Northern and Baltimore Orioles. The Rosy-Finches, the orioles and part of the flickers have since been re-split.
Baldpate - American Wigeon
Mexican Goshawk* - Gray Hawk
Dusky Grouse - Blue Grouse
Pileolated Warbler - Wilson's Warbler
Willow Thrush - Veery
Alaska Longspur - Lapland Longspur
Pigeon Hawk - Merlin
Desert Sparrow - Black-throated Sparrow
Long-tailed Chat - Yellow-breasted Chat
Sparrow Hawk - American Kestrel
Mexican Crested Flycatcher - Brown-crested Flycatcher
Arkansas Goldfinch - Lesser Goldfinch (black-backed form)
Marsh Hawk - Northern Harrier
Sage Hen - Sage Grouse
Calaveras Warbler - Nashville Warbler
Holboell's Grebe - Red-necked Grebe
Franklin's Grouse* - Spruce Grouse
Mearn's Quail* - Montezuma Quail
Florida Gallinule - Common Moorhen
Linnet - House Finch
Red-backed Sandpiper - Dunlin
Sharpe's Seedeater - White-collared Seedeater (sorry, missed an asterisk on this one)
Red-bellied Hawk - Red-shouldered Hawk; some suggested this was the eastern subspecies of Red-shouldered Hawk, but Peterson has it as the race that occurs in central and southern California, which would presumably be the race that has occurred here in Utah.
Northern Phalarope - Red-necked Phalarope
Hudsonian Curlew - Whimbrel (there is some talk about returning to this name)
Green-backed Goldfinch - Lesser Goldfinch (green-backed form)
Rivoli's Hummingbird - Magnificent Hummingbird
Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker* - Black-backed Woodpecker
Wright's Flycatcher - Dusky Flycatcher. This was an odd case, and almost everyone guessed it wrong. The confusion is because the scientific name for Gray Flycatcher is Empidonax wrightii, so of course the "Wright's Flycatcher" is Gray Flycatcher, right? No; Peterson has Gray Flycatcher, but the scientific name he has for that bird is the actual scientific name for Dusky Flycatcher (which he doesn't have). It is clear from the descriptions of the birds that what he calls Gray Flycatcher is indeed what we call Gray Flycatcher, and what he calls Wright's Flycatcher (Empidonax wrightii) is what we call Dusky Flycatcher. Did Peterson simply get the scientific names wrong? Who knows what happened here.
Plain Titmouse - Juniper and Oak Titmouse
Western Gnatcatcher - Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (in part)
Oregon Jay* - Gray Jay (in part - see above under Rocky Mountain Jay)
California Jay - Western Scrub-Jay. Some guessed Island Scrub-Jay, but he has that as a separate species, Santa Cruz Jay.
Russet-backed Thrush - Swainson's Thrush
Myrtle Warbler - Yellow-rumped Warbler
American Scoter - Black Scoter
Sennett's Warbler* - Tropical Parula
Duck Hawk - Peregrine Falcon
Grinnell's Waterthrush - Northern Waterthrush
Plumbeous Gnatcatcher - Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Hope you had fun with this!

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)