Bird names: Notes
History, sources, "to-do" list, ...
Last update: 25 October 1998
- In May 1995, I started this data base by merging several
"checklists" available on the Web:
- After elimination of typos, outdated taxonomic names, etc. I tried to
fill the empty fields from my own sources (mainly field books).
For North-American species, I used in French their European common names
(where different from the Canadian-French name). In English I used the names
found in the original checklist (there exist a
UK to US
translation file).
- Normally, I don't list sub-species. I do list them when they were given
a special status by the E.U. directives or when they have distinct names in
on or more languages.
- Begin 1996 I received from
Alain Chappuis
a combined list of Latin, French, English, German and Italian
names. The German and Italian names have been incorporated using the same
procedure than above. The French and English names were not cross-checked
with what I already had.
- In April(?) 1996 I received (again from
Alain Chappuis)
a Latin/Spanish list set up by Mauro Franzoni. The process
of incorporating these names owes a lot to
Bernard Le Clerc de La Herverie
who expressed the need for it and filled most of the 145 remaining
gaps. Jose Antonio Lama
Miñana added 10 Spanish names in December 1996.
- The Dutch list has been nearly completed
on December 6th, 1996, and totally completed on January 31st, 1997,
thanks to E.G. ter Haar
- After a heavy scan work Bernard Le Clerc de La Herverie also sent me a list of Russian names, which I finally
incorporated.
- Daniel Philippe sent me 16 of
the 17 still missing French names on February 6th, 1997. On February 9th, 1997,
the last French name was given to me by
Pierre Dejace.
- At the end of 1996 and during the first semester of 1997, I received
several new submissions and it became very difficult to manage the
database in its original form. The system were re-designed during the summer
of 1997.
Amongst its new features: the possibility to enter a name with accentuated
characters.
- In February 1997, Vera
Noest
sent me a very comprehensive tri-lingual list (Swedish/Dutch/English).
There where about 140 new species in this list, hence the sudden increase
of missing names in the other languages... after the incorporation of these
new names into the database in August 1997.
- In October 1998,
Robbin D. Knapp
translated the interface into German.
- To do: re-check the E.U. status.
- To do: add new languages
(submissions are welcome, but
there is already a waiting queue :-).
Some statistics:
- The data base currently holds 804 records.
- The numbers of missing common names, split by language, are as follows:
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