An Unfortunate Name—With a Nebraska Twist

The past days have seen an amusing conversation about bird names conducted on the online discussion group NEBirds—just the sort of thing to get us through these dog-day afternoons of August. The scientific name of the Paltry Tyrannulet, a tropical flycatcher, is Zimmerius vilissimus, the genus so named by Melvin Traylor after American ornithologist John Todd Zimmer, who had a Nebraska connection through the university and State Museum in Lincoln. Combining the bird’s specific epithet from 1859—long preceding the new genus name of 1977—resulted in an English meaning of the entirety as “the very contemptible Zimmer.” Not what Traylor probably intended by his taxonomical revision and naming in honor of Zimmer

Does Birding Have a Future?

Does birding have a future? Now this might seem an odd question, even an absurd question, to pose to an audience like this, and the answer might seem obvious. How could birding not have a future when we, all of us, are birders who bird, and when survey after recent survey assures us that our numbers are growing, our diversity increasing, and our economic and ethical contributions to American society ever more conspicuous. Does birding have a future? The simple answer is yes. That\u27s the simple answer. The more interesting answer is yes-yes, but. Yes, birding has a future, but that future is, I believe, not likely to look much like the sport\u27s present. In some ways, it will resemble elements and phases of our past; in other ways, ways that we cannot foresee, it will be unlike anything we have known. These general statements could apply to the development of just about anything human, of course. What is unique and I think greatly to our advantage, though, is that as birders at the beginning of the twenty-first century we actually have some choices about which elements of the past we wish to carry along with us into the future. And if we make those choices wisely, in full awareness of what present-day birding is, how it became what it is, and why it is facing-must face-the necessity of change-if we are aware of all these factors, we can make thoughtful choices, I believe, that will not only insure the sport\u27s persistence into the next hundred years, but make birding a more attractive pastime for newcomers, a more valuable contribution to what we call science, and a more influential force in the negotiation of environmental policy in this country and around the world

Does Birding Have a Future?

Does birding have a future? Now this might seem an odd question, even an absurd question, to pose to an audience like this, and the answer might seem obvious. How could birding not have a future when we, all of us, are birders who bird, and when survey after recent survey assures us that our numbers are growing, our diversity increasing, and our economic and ethical contributions to American society ever more conspicuous. Does birding have a future? The simple answer is yes. That\u27s the simple answer. The more interesting answer is yes-yes, but. Yes, birding has a future, but that future is, I believe, not likely to look much like the sport\u27s present. In some ways, it will resemble elements and phases of our past; in other ways, ways that we cannot foresee, it will be unlike anything we have known. These general statements could apply to the development of just about anything human, of course. What is unique and I think greatly to our advantage, though, is that as birders at the beginning of the twenty-first century we actually have some choices about which elements of the past we wish to carry along with us into the future. And if we make those choices wisely, in full awareness of what present-day birding is, how it became what it is, and why it is facing-must face-the necessity of change-if we are aware of all these factors, we can make thoughtful choices, I believe, that will not only insure the sport\u27s persistence into the next hundred years, but make birding a more attractive pastime for newcomers, a more valuable contribution to what we call science, and a more influential force in the negotiation of environmental policy in this country and around the world

Hayden, Tristram, and a Pigeon from “Nebraska”

A passenger pigeon skin in the World Museum in Liverpool, England, was collected during an expedition to Nebraska and Dakota led by Gouverneur K. Warren between 1855 and 1857 and later cataloged by geologist and naturalist Ferdinand V. Hayden. For a time it was in the collection of Henry Baker Tristram, a famous naturalist and a founder of the British Ornithologists’ Union. Passenger pigeons were once “quite abundant” along the Missouri River

Book Review, in \u3ci\u3eNebraska Bird Review\u3c/i\u3e (September 1988) 56(3)

Nebraska Birds: Breeding Status and Distribution, by James E. Ducey, maps by Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory, University of Nebraska at Omaha. Illustrated by Paul A. Johnsgard, xiii + 148 pp., 8½ x 11, Simmons-Boardman Books, Omaha, 1988, soft cover $19.95