Proposal (850) to South American Classification Committee
Use the
English name Comb Duck for Sarkidiornis sylvicola
Background and
analysis:
Sarkidiornis sensu lato consists of two taxa,
the New World sylvicola and the Old
World nominate melanotos. These taxa
variably have been recognized as a single species or as two species. SACC recently approved a
proposal (AOS-SACC 825) to split Comb Duck Sarkidiornis melanotos into two species. SACC adopted the names previously
used for groups of the pre-split species by AOU 1998 (American Comb-Duck for sylvicola
and African Comb-Duck for melanotos). Approval of the current
proposal instead would retain the English name Comb Duck for Sarkidiornis
sylvicola and adopt the widely used English name Knob-billed Duck for Sarkidiornis
melanotos.
Several
English names have been applied to these taxa, but far and away the most common
of these are Comb Duck and Knob-billed Duck. There are some general patterns in
how these names have been applied, although always with some exceptions. Also
note that some sources simply use one name or the other, whereas others
acknowledge the existence of both names, but end up choosing one. Most authors who
recognize only a single species have used Comb Duck (Phillips 1922, Delacour
and Mayr 1945, Delacour 1959, Johnsgard 1978, Soothill and Whitehead 1978,
Ripley 1982, Sick 1983, Madge and Burn 1988, Sibley and Monroe 1990, Robson
2000, Dickinson 2003, Hockey et al. 2005, Dickinson and Remsen 2013), but a few
opted for Knob-billed Duck (Britton 1980, Brown et al. 1982, Maclean 1988).
Also
worth mentioning are regional works that are silent on the question of how many
species to recognize. Many of these used Knob-billed Duck (e.g., Newman 1983,
Brickell 1988, Lewis and Pomeroy 1989, Dowsett and Forbes-Watson 1993, Barlow
and Wacher 1997, Borrow and Demey 2001, Stevenson and Fanshawe 2002), but a few
used Comb Duck (e.g., Inskipp et al. 1996, Grimmett et al. 1999).
Many
of the references that recognized two species were regional, and so provided an
English name only for the relevant taxon. In this category, the split primarily
has been adopted by sources dealing with the Old World taxa, the majority of
whom have adopted Knob-billed Duck (e.g., Roberts 1940, Mackworth-Praed and
Grant 1952, Bannerman 1953, McLachlan and Liversidge 1957, Mackworth-Praed and
Grant 1962, Clancey 1964, McLachlan and Liversidge 1978, Clancey 1980). Worth
noting here is Rasmussen and Anderton (2005), which used Comb Duck, during a
work in which they provisionally recognized only a single species; but these
authors split Sarkidiornis a few
years later, and adopted Knob-billed Duck for the taxon in South Asia
(Rasmussen and Anderton 2012). Gill and Wright (2006) addressed both taxa,
adopting Knob-billed Duck for melanotos
and Comb Duck for sylvicola; this
approach also was taken by the eBird/Clements Checklist v2018.
There
is a third way, which is to use modifiers to Comb Duck to distinguish the two
taxa. This trend began with authors who still recognized only a single species,
and so were giving English names to each subspecies. Delacour (1959) may have
been the first in this vein, using Old World Comb Duck for melanotos and American Comb Duck for sylvicola; these names also were adopted by Soothill and Whitehead
(1978). Sibley and Monroe (1990), however, proposed African Comb Duck and
American Comb Duck, names that also used by the AOU (1983, 1998) and del Hoyo
and Collar (2014). Hilty and Brown (1986) and Hilty (2003) suggested South
American Comb Duck for sylvicola but
did not comment on a name for melanotos.
Livezey (1997) split the two, offering Gray-sided Comb-Duck for melanotos and Black-sided Comb-Duck for sylvicola. Ridgely and Greenfield (2001)
endorsed either American Comb-Duck or Black-sided Comb-Duck, without suggesting
a name for melanotos. Kear (2005)
split Sarkidiornis and used the names
South American Comb Duck and African Comb Duck. One other point perhaps worthy
of consideration is the geographic range of melanotos.
It is widespread across sub-Saharan Africa, but also occurs in southern and
southeastern Asia, suggesting that African Comb Duck is a poor choice for melanotos.
Our
view is that adoption of any version of a modifier + Comb Duck is problematic.
Some options on the table, such as "Gray-sided/Black-sided",
"South American", or "Old World", result in complex
compound bird names. We've all learned to accept such names when we have to,
but we prefer simpler name constructions wherever possible. Also note that a
subtext of the precedents that were documented above is that the literature on
African birds overwhelmingly endorses
Knob-billed Duck for melanotos.
Admittedly Africa does not represent the whole of the geographic range of melanotos, but Africa clearly is the
heart of the range of this species.
An
informal survey of field ornithologists active in southeast Asia (David
Bakewell, David Bishop, Tim Boucher, Wich'yanan "Jay"
Limparungpatthanakij, and Robert Tizard) suggested widespread support for
Knob-billed Duck. Praveen J, first author on the recent India checklist
(Praveen J. et al. 2016), wrote that "As a general direction, the intent
of our checklist is also to gradually transition the regional community to more
widely accepted names while minimizing the local impact of the same. Hence, it
is also in our interest to transition to Knob-billed Duck".
Therefore
we suggest a simple Comb Duck for sylvicola,
and Knob-billed Duck for melanotos.
We
are aware of the guiding rule that when a species is split, the parental name
(in this case, Comb Duck) is modified or is set aside completely for the
daughter species; indeed, arguably we have done as much as anyone has to promote
this practice (e.g., AOS-NACC Proposal
2011-C-14).
This rule exists for a reason, to reduce confusion when the same English name
is applied to two different concepts (sensu
lato versus sensu stricto
versions of the relevant English name). In the case of the Sarkidiornis, however, we are fairly confident that the risk of
confusion from retaining Comb Duck for sylvicola
will pose little problem. For one thing, the two taxa are widely allopatric.
Furthermore, the name Comb Duck already is standard throughout the range of sylvicola, and Knob-billed Duck is the
preferred name in most of the range of melanotos.
Finally, given that eBird already split these a year and a half ago, we now
have empirical data to bear on the question: there has been no confusion at all
with the name Comb Duck in the New World, and while errors in the Old World do
occur, these happen at a very low and manageable rate. In short, the simpler
names do not represent a case that would, in practice, contribute to the
problem that SACC's guidelines on English names are designed to circumvent.
Also note that our proposal would be consistent with the pattern exhibited in
the case of several Old World/New World splits that recently were adopted by
AOS-NACC, e.g. Velvet and White-winged scoters (Melanitta fusca/deglandi),
Common and Black scoters (Melanitta niger/americana), and Hen and Northern harriers (Circus cyaneus/hudsonicus).
Recommendation:
Our
interpretation of the history of the names is that there already exists a clear
preference in the literature for Knob-billed Duck for melanotos, at least on the part of ornithologists who have the
greatest experience with this taxon. Therefore, we recommend that SACC retain
Comb Duck for Sarkidiornis sylvicola,
and that SACC go one step further and explicitly endorse Knob-billed Duck for S. melanotos.
Literature Cited:
American
Ornithologists' Union. 1983. Check-list of North American birds. Sixth edition.
American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
American
Ornithologists' Union. 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh
edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
Bannerman, D. A. 1953.
The birds of western and equatorial Africa. Volume 1. Oliver and Boyd, London.
Barlow, C., and T.
Wacher. 1997. A field guide to birds of The Gambia and Senegal. Yale University
Press. New Haven, Connecticut, and London.
Borrow, N., and R.
Demey. 2001. A guide to birds of western Africa. Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey.
Brickell, N. 1988.
Ducks geese and swans of Africa and its outlying islands. Frandsen, Sandton,
South Africa.
Britton, P.L. (editor).
1980. Birds of east Africa. East Africa Natural History Society, Nairobi.
Brown, L.H., E.K.
Urban, and K. Newman. 1982. The birds of Africa. Volume I. Academic Press,
London.
Clancey, P. A. 1964.
The birds of Natal and Zululand. Oliver and Boyd, London.
Clancey, P. A.
(editor). 1980. S. A. O. S. checklist of southern African birds. Sigma Press,
Pretoria.
Delacour, J. 1959. The
waterfowl of the world. Volume 3. Country Life Limited. London.
Delacour, J., and E.
Mayr. 1945. The family Anatidae. Wilson Bulletin 57:
3-55.
Dickinson, E. C.
(editor). 2003. The Howard and Moore complete checklist of the birds of the
world. Third edition. Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
Dickinson, E. C., and
J. V. Remsen, Jr. (editors). 2013. The Howard and Moore
complete checklist of the birds of the world. Fourth edition. Volume 1.
Non-passerines. Aves Press, Eastbourne, United Kingdom.
Dowsett, R. J., and A.
D. Forbes-Watson. 1993. Checklist of birds of the Afrotropical and Malagasy
regions. Volume 1: species limits and distribution. Tauraco Press, Liège,
Belgium.
Gill, F., and M.
Wright. 2006. Birds of the world: recommended English names. Princeton
University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Grimmett, R., C.
Inskipp, and T. Inskipp. 1999. A guide to the birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey.
Hilty, S. L. 2003.
Birds of Venezuela. Second edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New
Jersey.
Hilty, S. L., and W. L.
Brown. 1986. A guide to the birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey.
Hockey, P.A.R., W.R.J.
Dean, and P.G. Ryan (editors). 2005. Roberts Birds of southern Africa. VII
edition. Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town.
del Hoyo, J., and N.J.
Collar. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International illustrated checklist of the birds
of the world. Volume 1. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Inskipp, T., N. Lindsey,
and W. Duckworth. 1996. An annotated
checklist of the birds of the Oriental Region. Oriental Bird Club, Sandy,
Bedfordshire, United Kingdom.
Johnsgard, P. A. 1978.
Ducks, geese, and swans of the world. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln,
Nebraska.
Kear, J. (editor).
2005. Ducks, geese and swans. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Lewis, A., and D.
Pomeroy. 1989. A bird atlas of Kenya. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam.
Livezey, B. C. 1997. A phylogenetic
classification of waterfowl (Aves: Anseriformes), including selected fossil
species.
Annals of Carnegie
Museum 66: 457-496.
Mackworth-Praed, C. W.,
and C. H. B. Grant. 1952. Birds of eastern and north eastern Africa. Volume 1.
Longman, London.
Mackworth-Praed, C. W.,
and C. H. B. Grant. 1962. Birds of the southern third of Africa. Volume 1.
Longman, London.
Mackworth-Praed, C. W.,
and C. H. B. Grant. 1970. Birds of west central and western Africa. Volume 1.
Longman, London.
Maclean, G. L. 1988.
Roberts' Birds of southern Africa. Fifth edition. New Holland, London.
Madge, S., and H. Burn.
1988. Waterfowl. An identification guide to the ducks, geese and swans of the
world. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York.
McLachlan, G. R., and
R. Liversidge. 1957. Roberts Birds of South Africa. Second edition. Cape &
Transvaal, Cape Town.
McLachlan, G. R., and
R. Liversidge. 1978. Roberts Birds of South Africa. Fourth edition. Cape &
Transvaal, Cape Town.
Newman, K. 1983.
Newman's birds of southern Africa. MacMillan South Africa, Johannesburg.
Phillips, J. C. 1922. A
natural history of the ducks. Volume 1. Houghton Mifflin, Boson.
Praveen, J., R.
Jayapal, and A. Pittie. 2016. A checklist of the
birds of India.
Indian Birds 11: 113-170.
Rasmussen, P. C., and
J. C. Anderton. 2005. Birds of South Asia. The Ripley guide. Volume 2:
attributes and status. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions, Washington
D.C. and Barcelona.
Rasmussen, P. C., and
J. C. Anderton. 2012. Birds of South Asia. The Ripley guide. Volume 2:
attributes and status. Second Edition. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions,
Washington D.C. and Barcelona.
Ridgely, R. S., and P.
J. Greenfield. 2001. The birds of Ecuador: status, distribution, and taxonomy.
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.
Ripley, S. D. 1982. A
synopsis of the birds of India and Pakistan together with those of Nepal,
Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay.
Roberts, A. 1940. The
birds of South Africa. Witherby, London.
Robson, C. 2000. A
guide to the birds of southeast Asia. Princeton University Press, Princeton,
New Jersey.
Sibley, C. G., and B.
L. Monroe, Jr. 1990. Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. Yale
University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.
Sick, H. 1993. Birds in
Brazil. A natural history. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Soothill, E., and P.
Whitehead. 1978. Wildfowl of the world. Peerage Books, London.
Stevenson, R., and J.
Fanshawe. 2002. Field guide to the birds of East Africa. T & A D Poyser,
London.
Tom Schulenberg and
Marshall J. Iliff, 20 March 2020
Comments from
Remsen: “YES.
I think this the best solution.
Parenthetically, note that this is a good example of why we should
consider separate proposals or subproposals for any English name change,
because I predict we would have arrived at this solution rather than just
plugging in AOS group name.”
Comments
from Jaramillo:
“YES. Put me
down as a yes, although it creates a possible confusion. In real life use, the
confusion will be minor as noted in the proposal. The benefit of a simpler set
of names is a great benefit to the users of English Names.”
Comments from Areta: “Even though my vote does not count, I want to
express my support to this option. With common names, usage and practice are to
be regarded above all other considerations.”
Comments from Paul Smith:
“The
near exclusive application of the name Knob-billed Duck to melanotos versus Comb Duck for sylvicola is not as clear cut as
the proposal suggests. The names Knob-billed Duck and Knob-billed Goose are
used with approximately equal frequency in the African literature – these
should be viewed as two distinct names rather than one name. Furthermore some
of the key works on African birds cite both names, thereby reflecting the
“synonymy” of these two names for the parent taxon (sensu lato). On the
other hand the name Comb Duck is used almost exclusively in the American and
Asian literature with a few exceptions, as well as for the parent taxa in most
major checklists and most major monographs on waterfowl. Thus the portrayal of
Knob-billed Duck/Goose vs Comb Duck being equivalent to Old World versus New
World is inaccurate. In fact, even at its most restricted level, it has, until
very recently, been equivalent only to Africa versus Asia + America. (See below
for a summary of usage in some recent regional works).
Comb
Duck
Robson 2002 Birds of Thailand
Wildash
1968 Birds of South Vietnam
Robson 2000 FG Birds of SE Asia
King et al. 1986 Birds of SE Asia
Lekagul
1974 Birds of Thailand
Fleming et al 1979 Birds of Nepal
Grimmett
et al. 1979 Birds of Nepal Helm Guide
Shrestha 2001 Birds of Nepal Field Ecology, Natural History and
Conservation
Roberts 1991 Birds of Pakistan Vol 1
Kasmierczak
2000 FG to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent
Grimmett
et al. 2001 Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent
Grimmett
& Inskipp 2003 Birds of Northern India
Grimmett
et al. 2008 Birds of Pakistan
Harrison 1999 Birds of Sri Lanka
Samarpan2006 – Photographic Guide to the Birds of India
Ali & Ripley - Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the Indian
Subcontinent
Grimmett
et al 1998 Helm Birds of the Indian Subcontinent
Ali & Ripley 1987 Compact Handbook of the Birds of India and
Pakistan
Ali 1979 The Book of Indian Birds
MacKinnon & Inskipp 2000 FG to the Birds of China
Meyer de Schauensee 1984 The Birds of China
Hawkins et al 2015 Helm FG Birds of Madagascar and the Indian Ocean
Islands
Morris & Hawkins 1998 Birds of Madagascar a Photographic Guide
Both
names given
(I think that being objective you could make a pretty good argument that
these are all key texts in modern African regional literature)
Brown et al. 1981 The Birds of Africa Volume 1
Stevenson & Fanshawe 2002 FG Birds of East Africa
Sinclair & Ryan 2003 Birds of Africa South of the Sahara
Sinclair et al 2002 etc SASOL Birds of Southern Africa
Knob-billed
Duck/Goose
Van Perlo 1999 Birds of Southern Africa
Van Perlo 1995 Birds of Eastern Africa
Arlott
2015 Collins FG to Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka
Van Perlo 2002 Birds of Western and Central
Africa
Rasmussen & Anderton 2012 Birds of South Asia The Ripley Guide
Warakagoda
et al 2012 Birds of Sri Lanka
Mackworth-Praed 1957 Birds of Eastern and Northeastern
Africa
Mackworth-Praed 1969Birds of Southern Third of Africa
Mackworth-Praed 1970Birds of West Central and Western Africa
Williams
& Arlott 1989 Collins FG Birds of East Africa
Serle et al. 1977 Birds of West Africa
Morel
& Morel 1990 Oiseaux de Senegambie
Barlow
et al 1997 FG Birds of the Gambia and Senegal
Guggisberg
1985 Birds of East Africa
Gill
1970 First Guide to South African Birds
Hancock
& Weiersbye 2016 Birds of Botswana
Benson
et al1973 Birds of Zambia
Redman
et al 2009 Birds of the Horn of Africa
Gatter 1997 Birds of Liberia
Ash
& Miskell 1998 Birds of Somalia
Sinclair1984
FG to Birds of South Africa
Newman
1991 Newmans Birds of Southern Africa (Updated Ed)
Prozesky1980
FG to the Birds of Southern Africa
McLachlan
& Liversidge 1972 Roberts Birds of Southern Africa
Langrand 1990 Guide to the birds
of Madagascar
“Regards the recommended name according to the
NACC guidelines for application of English names, (https://americanornithology.org/nacc/guidelines-for-english-bird-names/) if the committee was
to decide to follow the NACC guidelines (at this point awaiting a proposal and
approval), I would draw attention to the following:
C.
New and Modified Names Based on Changes to Classification
1. Typical
species splits. In the case of true phylogenetic daughter species formerly
treated as a single parental species, the usual policy is to create new names for each
daughter species. …This practice
is designed to prevent confusion in the literature as to what taxonomic entity
the parental name (e.g.,
Solitary Vireo) refers. Note that this differs from the procedure used for
scientific names, which mandates (via ICZN) that the name of the nominate form
remain unchanged. In support of the principle of stability,
the choice of new names strongly considers existing names for the daughter
species in widely used older literature (e.g., Ridgway and Friedmann 1901-1946) as
well as any names proposed for the new species in publications supporting the
change in species limits.
“As highlighted
in the proposal under Art C1 the usual practice is for daughter species to be given
new names and the choice of new names should consider existing names for the
daughter species in support of the principle of stability. Two exceptions are
mandated for this:
1.1 Asymmetry
in range size. When one or more of the new daughter species are
essentially peripheral isolates or have similarly small ranges compared to the
other daughter species, then the parental name may be retained for the
widespread, familiar daughter species to maintain stability……. The
Committee recognizes that judging the degree of asymmetry is subjective and
that borderline cases will sometimes occur.
1.2 Special
cases. In exceptional cases, when a
parental name is much more appropriate for one of the daughter species, and
when no truly appropriate substitute name can be found, a parental name may be
retained for that daughter. For example, in the case of the split of
Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis), the parental name Winter Wren was
retained for the migratory eastern species, whereas the novel name Pacific Wren
was created for the largely resident western species (T. pacificus).
In this case the retained English name of the eastern species hiemalis also
reflects its scientific name, which means “of winter” (Jobling 2010).
“Given that Comb Duck was the name attributed to
the parent taxon in the majority of the non-African “pre-split” literature,
under Art 1.1 both the names Comb Duck and Knob-billed Duck/Goose are,
according to the guidelines, available only for the widespread Old World melanotos, not the more
restricted New World sylvicola which has a considerably
smaller geographic range. Nor can it justifiably be considered an “exceptional
case” under Art 1.2 as a "truly appropriate" substitute name “South
American Comb Duck” is available and in use in the most comprehensive monograph
of the Anseriformes yet published (Kear 2005). Understandably this may not be a
name that people are enthusiastic about, but it is not inappropriate and the
natural desire to “improve” on this name is warned against under Art A1.
1. Stability
of English names. The NACC recognizes that there are substantial
benefits to nomenclatural stability and that long-established English names
should only be changed after careful deliberation and for good cause. As
detailed in AOU (1983), NACC policy is to “retain well established names for
well-known and widely distributed species, even if the group name or a modifier
is not precisely accurate, universally appropriate, or descriptively the best
possible.” The NACC has long interpreted this policy as a caution against the
ever-present temptation to ‘improve’ well-established English names and this
remains an important principle. In practice, this means that
proposals to the NACC advocating a change to a long-established English name must
present a strongly compelling, well-researched, and balanced rationale.
“The meaning of “well-established” is open to
interpretation, but certainly when considering stability of usage any name that
is in current usage is by definition more “well-established” than any invented
new name. On the other hand global lists such as IOC and Cornell Birds of the
World have recently adopted the names as proposed by the proposal (Comb Duck
and Knob-billed Duck), so there is an argument of stability to be made by
following suit - given that "South American" becomes essentially
obsolete as part of the name if there is only one Comb Duck (examples of
needlessly long names like this do exist nonetheless e.g., White-naped
Xenopsaris, Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper, Black-capped Donacobius etc).
“Two other potentially complicating issues of
relevance were not raised in the proposal.
“• In previous proposals the importance of
not insinuating sister species relationships with English names where they do
not exist has been highlighted before (e.g. Slaty Thrush), the other side of
this same argument is that where sister species relationships do exist then an
effort should be made to reflect them in the English names. South American Comb
Duck opens the door to doing this provided the Old World taxon takes a similar
modifier. However in "endorsing" a name that does not take the
modifier we consciously break the sister species relationship implied by
retaining it. The committee needs to decide whether consistency in approach
with regard to this issue outweighs the view of the proposal authors that
“adoption of any version of a modifier + Comb Duck is problematic”. Or to put
it another way, whether reflecting sister species relationships in common names
is a policy that the committee is seeking to adopt, and whether looking to keep
that option open in this case is desirable or unimportant. Electing to keep the
name Comb Duck for sylvicola
“claims” the name for the American taxon however and restricts the options
available for melanotos closing the door to any
name that reflects relationships.
“• It is justifiably debatable whether
NACC/SACC guidelines are applicable in cases where species have cosmopolitan
ranges and decisions have ramifications beyond the checklist area. In such
cases there is an argument that attempting to fall in line with other
authorities might result in a more stable outcome than trying to influence them
to change with new names. The adoption of Comb Duck following IOC and Cornell
Birds of the World might be fairly argued under that circumstance. Whether or
not SACC has the authority to “endorse” names of birds in other geographic
regions without engaging in dialogue is, however, open to question, and before
taking this unnecessary step it is perhaps worthy of consideration as to
whether the committee would feel bound by the decisions of others if the boot
was on the other foot.”
Comments from Zimmer: “YES”. This is a tough one. Paul Smith, in his comments, raises some
valid concerns about the proposed retention of Comb Duck for sylvicola. The temptation is to add a modifier (I would
prefer “American” to “South American”, both for brevity, and, in
acknowledgement that there are records from Panama.) to “Comb Duck”, but then,
if Old World authorities end up sticking with Knob-billed Duck for melanotos, then the implied sister
relationship is lost from the English names, and we are left with an overly
long name like “White-naped Xenopsaris” or “Black-capped Donacobius” that
doesn’t serve any real purpose. Perhaps
it is my Africa bias at work (apologies to Asia), but I’ve always known melanotos by “Knob-billed Duck”, and
I’ve always used “Comb Duck” in the field for sylvicola. I think this is
one of those cases where, regardless of what we do, someone is going to be
unhappy, and we’ll be accused of inconsistent application of some
guideline. So, in anticipation that
“Knob-billed Duck” will prevail as the English name in the Old World, I think
the retention of “Comb Duck” for sylvicola
is the way to go. I also would have no
problem with adding the modifier “American” to Comb Duck, but would be
resistant to the unwieldy “South American Comb-Duck” or “Black-sided
Comb-Duck”.
Additional comments from Remsen: “I’m changing my vote to NO, mainly on the basis that Paul has pointed
out that “Comb Duck” is in widespread use in Asia. Paul also made several other good points. Also, given that species rank for these two
is barely justified, Comb vs. Knob-billed implies a degree of difference that
doesn’t exist; in other words, this is one of those cases in which I think the
longer, compound names are actually better because they highlight that
similarity e.g. (American Comb-Duck and Old World Comb-Duck). As we all know, in the field we would just
call them “Comb Duck” anyway --- the compound name is simply for technical
reference. The problem is that
Knob-billed does seem to be in widespread usage in Africa. Further, NACC, Clements, etc., have already
gone with the simpler names.