Today I came across the following on page 27 of Scott Weidensaul's "Of a
Feather", where the author is describing the pioneering work of the Englishman
Mark Catesby. Catesby published his "The Natural History of Carolina, Florida,
and the Bahama Islands" beginning in 1729 and ending in 1743, and he died in
1749 or 1750. Quoting Weidensaul:
"Perhaps his most lasting contribution to American ornithology was the
names he gave to the birds he described, many of which have come down to
us today unchanged, or with a few grammatical tweaks: blew jay, red-headed
and hairy wood-peckers, blew gross-beak, and hooping crane, as well as
Canada goose, blue-winged teal, laughing gull, and purple finch."
A couple of pages later, Weidensaul describes how Linnaeus
imposed his sytem of nomenclature on "more than twelve
thousand plants and animals, including seventy-five birds Catesby had
originally described and named from North America."
Weidensaul does not mention Catesby ever traveling north of the Carolinas,
nor does he address whether Catesby a) knew that the Canada Goose was
associated with that country, or b) was a friend of the taxidermist (or both).
Julian
On Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:39:42 -0500, Laura Erickson
<chickadee.erick...@gmail.com> wrote:
>The Canada Goose was named by Linnaeus in 1758, and gets its name from its
>breeding range.
>
>It is of course perfectly acceptable and correct to call one a "Canadian
>goose" if you see it's passport or some other verification of its
>citizenship.
>
>Best, Laura Erickson
>
>On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 3:18 PM, Jeff Stephenson
<stephensonj...@charter.net
>> wrote:
>
>>
>> I just read the information below on Wiki Answers. I don't know if it's
>> true (anybody else know) but if so then since the goose was named after a
>> person not Canada then it makes sense that it shouldn't be called a
Canadian
>> Goose. I also didn't know a person could name a new species after
>> themselves.
>>
>> *****************************
>> John Canada was the taxidermist who first identified and classified the
>> Canada Goose from the North. He decided to name the bird after himself,
>> hence the name Canada Goose.
>>
>> *****************************
>> Jeff Stephenson
>> Olmsted County, Rochester MN
>> Cell Phone 507 254 8194
>> Home Phone 507 289 7635
>>
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>
>
>
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>Laura Erickson
>Science Editor
>Cornell Lab of Ornithology
>159 Sapsucker Woods Road
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>607-254-1114
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