There's a great little book called "A Dictionary of American Bird Names" by Ernest A. Choate. It gives the derivation for all the common and Latin names of all the N. American bird species. There is also a second section with a short bio on all the people who had birds named after them (Wilson, Baird, Townsend, Cassin, Xantus, etc.).  LeConte's Thrasher and Sparrow were actually named after two different guys. Who would have guessed?

There's a paperback version that sells for around $10. I probably got it from ABA sales, but you can also get it from Amazon.


Robert Royse
[log in to unmask]
www.roysephotos.com

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]