Proposal
(14) to South American Classification Committee
Change English name of Sula granti from
Nazca Booby to Grant's Booby
Background. Pitman and Jehl (1998) recommended that Sula
granti be recognized as a separate species, the Nazca Booby. This based on
their review of geographic variation in populations in the eastern Pacific.
Comments. The English name (Nazca Booby) was selected
because "recognizes that the current breeding range and probably
evolutionary history of this species is closely associated with the Nazca
Crustal Plate" (Pitman and Jehl, 1998). This is not a good choice, because
the majority of the people, Peruvians or other nationalities, relate the name
Nazca to the town of that name in the Department of Ica, south of Lima; the
Nazca culture and the Nazca lines (located in Nazca), and not to the Nazca
Plate.
Conclusions. In order to
avoid confusion on the geographical occurrence of this species, a change in the
English name is recommended.
Proposal. I propose
that the name Nazca Booby be changed to Grant's Booby. Before Sula granti was
recognized as a species, Hellmayr and Conover (1948) used the name Grant's
Blue-faced Booby for Sula dactylatra granti. To my knowledge no other name has
been use for this population.
References
Hellmayr,
Charles E., and Boardman Conover. 1948. Catalogue of birds of the Americas and
the adjacent islands. Part I, no. 2. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Zool. Ser., 13:
128.
Pitman,
Robert L., and Joseph R. Jehl, Jr. 1998. Geographic variation and reassessment
of species limits in the "Masked" boobies of the eastern Pacific
Ocean. Wilson Bull. 110: 155-170.
Manuel Plenge, May
2002
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Comments from Doug Stotz:
“NO. I think that the possibility of confusion over the geographic
distribution of a seabird is limited, given that Nazca is inland. This is sort
of like arguing that Inca Tern is not appropriate for Larosterna because the
Incas were an Andean culture. The name Nazca Booby is certainly much more
memorable than Grant's Booby. Although Manuel does demonstrate that Grant's has
a history of use as an English name for the former subspecies, I don't think
that can compare with the immediate adoption of Nazca Booby by many sources
after its recognition as a separate species. Finally, I am generally in favor
of following the English name suggestions of people that describe or raise taxa
to the species level unless there is a clear reason not to do so.
From Tom Schulenberg:
"NO. I prefer to retain the name Nazca Booby. I don't know how many people will
"get" the connection with the Nazca plate, but even if few do, I
don't think any harm will arise. I doubt if confusion with the town in the
desert will happen or cause problems (note
Doug's comments about "Inca Tern"). And "Nazca"
sounds more interesting than does (yawn) "Grant's".
From Mark Robbins:
"After reading Doug's comments concerning the English name of S.
granti, I would like to change my vote to a "NO".
From Gary Stiles:
"I like Nazca Booby, it's quite an evocative name for a seabird
(and I am not overly fond of patronyms, on the whole)."
From Alvaro Jaramillo:
"NO. I appreciate Manuel Plenge's problem with the name. However,
Nazca Booby has been widely accepted in the few short years the name has been
used and it would cause a good deal of confusion to change it right now.
Besides, I do like Nazca Booby as a name. While it may cause some confusion
with the town of Nazca, and the Nazca culture I think that having the word
Nazca in the English name is great. By changing Nazca Booby to Grant's Booby we
would lose the word at least from Ornithological circles and that would be a
shame.”