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Fw: Paper on new NC specimens




----- Original Message -----
From: "John Fussell" <jfuss@clis.com>
To: "Harry Legrand" <harry.legrand@ncmail.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 5:54 PM
Subject: Re: Paper on new NC specimens


> I strongly agree with Harry about this topic.
>
> All papers describing new species for a state, even if they are
represented
> by specimens in a museum, should describe the bird or birds.
>
> I say this for 3 reasons primarily:
>
> 1) Specimens sometimes get lost or misplaced.  Some have been destroyed in
> fires.
>
> 2) Specimens sometimes get mislabeled or the information accompanying them
> may get lost.
>
> Most of us have heard of the many examples of really strange
> birds--represented by specimens--recorded in the 19th century or early
20th
> century for which there is no question as to the bird's identification,
but
> for which there is plenty of question as to the bird's origin and so
forth.
>
> 3) Just because a bird was identified in the hand by a museum person
doesn't
> mean that the effort put into identifying the bird was particularly
> rigorous, or that the bird was even identified correctly.
>
> Recently, I wrote up a description of a MacGillivray's Warbler found dead
at
> Lake Mattamuskeet a few years ago (this note has been submitted to Chat).
> Even though this specimen is now in the State Museum, I felt strongly that
> there should be a published description of the bird.  By the way, in that
> case, I noticed that the out-of-state museum person that the State Museum
> sent the specimen to for identification replied merely that "I certainly
> concur that it is a MacGillivray's, for whatever that's worth. It seems to
> check out in every important way."
>
>                                               John Fussell
>                                               Morehead City, NC
>                                               jfuss@clis.com
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Harry Legrand" <harry.legrand@ncmail.net>
> To: <carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 1:14 PM
> Subject: Paper on new NC specimens
>
>
> > Folks:
> > I doubt many birders ever see The Journal of the Elisha Mitchell
> > Scientific Society. In the most recent issue, there is a paper by David
> > S. Lee, John A. Gerwin, and Rececca B. Browning entitled "Specimen
> > documentation of unusual, and previously unrecorded birds from North
> > Carolina", in volume 117 (2), pp. 123-127.
> >
>