When the wrong name is the right name

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 09 February 2012 12:07

Ben Oko took this shot of Ring-necked Ducks on the Titicus Reservoir, and wondered why they aren’t Ring-billed Ducks.Ben Oko of Ridgefield recently went on a winter duck tour to the Titicus Reservoir and bays surrounding it in northern Westchester County.

“The usual suspects were there, bufflehead, ring-necked, common merganser, coots, mallards, but in relatively small numbers. I considered this a disappointing consequence of the warm weather and the resulting absence of ice, leading to the ducks being dispersed.

“The next day this same lack of ice proved positive as, glancing at ice-free Pierrepont Lake across from my house, I found, on a rough count, some 200 Ring-necked Ducks cruising happily about.”

However, all those ring-necks sparked an observation. “Why they call these ducks with a prominent white ring around their bill ring-necked is beyond me.”

And that has sparked a column.

The Ring-necked Duck is so-called “for the faint line of lighter color at the base of the neck,” says Ernest A. Choate in his Dictionary of American Bird Names. It is also a reflection of its long-standing scientific name, Aythya collaris, which roughly translates, collared waterbird. The bird has, however, been unofficially called many other names including Ring-billed Duck, Ring-billed Shuffler, Ring-necked Scaup, Blue-bill Fall Duck (Minnesota), Black Jack (Illinois), Moon-Bill (South Carolina), according to The Nutty Birdwatcher (a bird website that has been around since the 1990s!).

It may be that there are too many ducks with ringed bills to use that as an official name.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker has a red-topped head that’s much more striking than the bit of red on the belly, prompting many to wonder about its name. But the Red-headed Woodpecker is even redder-headed, so some other distinguishing characteristic was chosen for naming this bird.

Choate said the ring-neck’s genus actually caused quite a naming dispute years ago, but it had nothing to do with rings on bills or necks. That generic name, Aythya, is based on a Greek word, and Dr. Elliott Coues, a prominent 19th Century ornithologist, complained that the word was incorrectly spelled in converting it from the Greek. He called it “violating plain rules for the transliteration from the Greek to the Latin.”

How would he have spelled it? Aethyia.

Much a-duck-do about nothing?

Natural history naming varies with the type of plant or animal that is involved, but with all species, the scientific names are carefully controlled.

The modern system of classifying and naming of all life, called taxonomy, was developed by a Swede named Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). It gives scientists an orderly and defined way of not only naming, but also relating and ranking the world’s plants and animals.

The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature oversees the application of the rules for naming animals while International Association for Plant Taxonomy oversees various forms of plant life.

Aside from arguments about the transliteration of ancient words with different alphabets, the world of naming species has other peculiarities. One is that a name can be wrong and right at the same time.

When I was writing the book, The Secrets of Wildflowers (Lyons Press, 2003), I noticed that the scientific name for jewelweed, a common native summer wildflower that attracts many hummingbirds, was Impatiens capensis. Capensis, it turns out, means the plant came from The Cape of Good Hope. What’s more, in past botanical circles, jewelweed was also known as Impatiens biflora, reflecting the fact that blossoms often appear in pairs. This name, however, does not appear in modern guides.

Why would botanists, who had a perfectly good name in Impatiens bilfora, use one recalling the southern tip of Africa more than 8,000 miles from the plant’s native territory?

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden had the answer. “The name I. capensis was published by Meerburgh in 1775, 13 years earlier than Walter’s I. biflora. It has priority of publication and is therefore the correct name. Meerburgh described [the plant] from material cultivated in European gardens. He mistakenly thought it had been introduced from the Cape of Good Hope. The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, in the interests of stability, does not permit changes in the specific epithet merely on the grounds that it is ‘inappropriate.’ Thus, Impatiens capensis remains the correct name.”

Ring-necked or ring-billed. Twin-flowered or South African. Nothing’s perfect in nomenclature.

Coming up

Field Trip to Dean’s Bridge, North Salem, N.Y., with Bedford Audubon Naturalist Tait Johansson, Thursday, Feb, 16, 8:30 to 10 a.m.; depart Bylane Farm, 35 Todd Rd., Katonah, N.Y., 8 a.m., register at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 914-519-7801, bedfordaudubon.org.

Seals and Seabirds cruises, two and a half hours around Norwalk Islands, Saturdays, Feb. 18 at 1 p.m., March 17 at 1:30 pm, March 31 at noon and Sunday, April 1, at 1 p.m., $20.50, Maritime Aquarium, Norwalk, 203-852-0700, ext. 2206, maritimeaquarium.org.

Cape Ann Birding Weekend, Feb. 18 to 20, Saw Mill River Audubon, (914) 666-6503 or emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Training session for Great Backyard Bird Count, Saturday, Feb. 18, 1 to 2:30, Audubon Greenwich, 613 Riversville Road, RSVP 203-869-5272 x230.

Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb. 17-20, www.birdsource.org.

Master Bird Conservationist program, classes with and field trip, Feb. 22, March 7, 21, April 4, free, but volunteer service expected, Audubon Connecticut, at Bridgeport City Hall Annex, audubonct.org 203-264-5098.

Copyright 2012 by Jack Sanders. Send sightings or comments to: jackfsanders [at sign] gmail.com, or to Bird Notes, Box 1019, Ridgefield, CT 06877. If you need help identifying a bird, try your local nature center. If you find an injured bird, call wildlife rehabilitator Darlene Wimbrow of Redding, 203-438-0618, Wildlife in Crisis of Weston, 203-544-9913, or Wild Wings of Greenwich, 203-637-9822. The columnist’s website is www. sandersbooks. com.