Proposal (#21) to South American Check-list
Committee:
Lima, 20 June 2002
From: Manuel A. Plenge
To: South American Checklist Committee
Subject: Change of English name of Rollandia microptera
Background.Called Short-winged Grebe by Hellmayr and Conover (1948), Meyer de
Schauensee (1966, 1970) and most subsequent authors. Fjeldså and
Krabbe (1990) proposed the name 'Titicaca Flightless Grebe' and has
been used by Stattersfield et al. (1997).
Comments.Following the criteria used by BirdLife International (see proposal on
Podiceps taczanowskii), it could be called 'Titicaca Grebe.' The
'flightless' would be omitted.
Conclusions.The species occurs on Lake Titicaca on the Peru/Bolivia border and in
Lake Poopó. However, most recent records are from Lake Titicaca.
'Titicaca Grebe' is a very good name as this is also the name used in
Spanish: Zambullidor del Titicaca. There is a precedence on the name
change of a grebe due to its restricted range. In Guatemala Podilymbus
gigas name was changed from Giant Pied-billed Grebe to Atitlán Grebe,
because it was only known from Lake Atitlán.
Proposal.I propose that the name be changed to Titicaca Grebe as it is very
specific as to its present distribution.
References.Hellmayr, Charles (=Carl) E., and Boardman Conover. 1948. Catalogue
of birds of the Americas and the adjacent islands .. Field Mus. Nat. Hist.,
Zool. Ser., 13: 36.
Meyer de Schauensee, Rodolphe. 1966. The species of birds of South
America and their distribution. Livingston Publishing Company,
Narberth, Pennsylvania, p. 11.
Meyer de Schauensee, Rodolphe. 1970. A guide to the birds of South
America. Livingston Publishing Company, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania,
p. 11.
Fjeldså, Jon, and Niels Krabbe. 1990. Birds of the high Andes. A
manual to the birds of the temperate zone of the Andes and Patagonia,
South America. Zool. Museum, Univ. Copenhagen, p. 66-67.
Stattersfield, Alison J., Michael J. Crosby, Adrian J. Long, and David C.
Wege. 1997. Endemic bird areas of the world: priorities for biodiversity
conservation. BirdLife Conser. Ser. no. 7: 680, 659.
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Comments from Robbins:
"I vote "yes" for both of Manuel's proposals. Both proposed names are
far more informative than their current English names."
Comments from Tom Schulenberg:
"I usually prefer to retain established names. "Short-winged" is an
awkward name, but it is established. And given that this species is not
endemic to Lake Titicaca (even if that lake forms the larger part of its
distribution), I don't see a compelling reason to change the name.
Comments from Gary Stiles:
" same logic [as for Proposal 20]. Even if the bird does occur on another
nearby lake,
this doesn't seriously compromise things: it's still very restricted, and
certainly the bulk of the range is Titicaca."
Comments from Alvaro Jaramillo:
"Yes, the change to Titicaca Grebe is a good one. I hesitated on this
due to Tom's comment, retaining established names is important.
However, Short-winged Grebe is just an awful name. Also, I still see
Titicaca Flightless Grebe as a name, and wonder how well entrenched
Short-winged Grebe as a name. "
Comments from Zimmer: "As much as I favor stability in English names,
I'm willing to make exceptions. The name "Titicaca Grebe" would seem
to be so informative that introduction of a new name would actually
confer more recognition than retaining the old "familiar" name of Shortwinged Grebe. Record me as a "yes" vote for changing to "Titicaca
Grebe"."