Evening star., 1944-04-11
This and That
By Charles E. TrdceUell.
TRINIDAD AVENUE. NE,

Dear Sir:
& I'm our Nature Encyclopedias the de-
tailed descriptions Of birds are preceded
by the formal classification, thus:
'Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis
Uinnaeus); A. o. U. number 7A.'
What is the name shown in paren-
thesis? And what does "A. o. u stand
for?
"You know, This and That is really
our favorite nature encyclopedia!
VERY truly yours, p. B. g."
=
The name in parentheses shows the
man who first described and named
the species. In the case Of our catbird,
he was the famous Linnaeus, great
Swedish botanist, who had hand in
many natural namings.
The initials "A. o. u" stand for the
American Ornithologists' Union, an Or
ganization of bird lovers who listed the
birds as they studied them, and gave
them numbers for their own conven-
ience, according to a scientific scheme.
1t Is here as with music. A man
named Kochel studied and classified
the works Of Mozart, and gave each q
number. Today when the titles Of
Mozarts works are given, they are al
most always followed by the initial K.
and a number. Thus any musician or
lover of music may know definitely,
when he sees TX. 412," that 1t is the
412th number Of Kochel's classification
and none other.
Classification is necessary in all
groups of scientific and artistic things.
Otherwise every interested person might
have his own system, and no one else
would know to which thing he referred.
This was the case, of course, in the
. early history Of natural science, as some
call it.
Karl Linnaeus, who lived from 17o7
to l778, originated modern geological
and botanical classifications, based
partly ON sexual differences.
In most instances, the common or
popular names of animals, birds,
flowers, insects, fishes are all that is
necessary.
Ihese common names have beauty
and fitness Of their own. Rigid scien-
lists are the first to acknowledge this.
Yet IN handling a mass of names, it is
necessary to have some set classical
ton, and some name which may be
understood in every language.
One Of the great faults of the COM
mon names Is that they cannot be
understood in another country, or even
IN another part of the same country.
Many popular names are in no sense
accurate some even downright mis-
leading, yet they have withStood the
test of time.
The sparrow hawk, for instance,
catches few sparrows. The bee bird
eats few bees.
Scientific names, too, are sometimes
inaccurate. The purple finch, for in
stance, has the Latin word for purple"
in it, yet this bird Is definitely not
purple, at least in any known modern
sense. 1t is, rather rosy, or wine COL
ored. There is, perhaps, bit of purple
in it, but blended in SO that the grand
result is not purple bird, In any sense,
but bird which seems to have been
dipped in pokeberry juice
***
Fortunately, most bird friends can get
along without scientific names. There
is singular beauty in the old popular
names-even when they are wrong or
misleading. Maeterlinck, in one of his
essays, has shown us the genuine love-
illness in the old flower names.
In America we have a whole conti-
nent fragrant with Indian names,
breathing the very essence of the out
door life. If LongfelloW, sometimes
abused poet, had done nothing else
except give us his "Hiawatha," he would
have left our land much in his debt.
So, too, we believe, all persons who
hrAafha tho Svl1ah1oc nf ha
names Of our birds help perpetuate
something which adds very much to our
understanding and love Of our country.