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Nomenclature, or the process of naming things in a particular field, is a subject of great interest – and sometimes controversy – to many birders and ornithologists. Choices of English bird names, in particular, can generate much discussion and strongly held opinions. World lists, such as the IOC World Bird List and the eBird/Clements Checklist, have tried to bring some stability by giving every bird a unique name, but some species have different names in each checklist – and sometimes these are not the names used in the relevant regional field guides. Then there are those people who want to change English names to be more relevant and inclusive, and eponyms (a name derived from the name of a person, often the ‘discoverer’ of the bird) have been a prime target. Fortunately, scientific names are more stable and less easily changed, although modern taxonomic work involving genetic sequencing has resulted in many more genera, and even families, than before.

But, whatever it’s called, it is often interesting to discover the origin or meaning of a bird’s name, either English or scientific. Some are of course obvious, but many are not. This book sets out to explain the names for all Western Palearctic birds, covering almost 1,100 species.

I was a little disappointed that the old definition of the Western Palearctic was used in the book; most modern books treat an expanded region that includes the whole of Arabia and Iran. After a short introduction covering the evolution of English, the modern development of English bird names and the advent of scientific bird names, the bulk of the book is devoted to the species accounts, which are presented in taxonomic order. The author has chosen to follow the taxonomy and sequence of the IOC World Bird List (v14.1), which is widely followed by birders, although ‘eBirders’ will be more familiar with the Clements list.

In total, 103 bird families are treated, which are randomly divided into 16 sections, each prefaced with an often-uninspiring black-and-white photograph of a relevant bird (an attractive line-drawing would have looked so much better). Each family has a short introduction (sometimes very short), but it is the species accounts that are the main focus. Each account begins with a short statement of the bird’s status or distribution, which seems a little unnecessary in a book such as this and is often too short to be useful. This is followed by brief explanations of the English and scientific names. Sometimes these are blindingly obvious; for example, for Oriental Skylark Alauda gulgula, it says ‘Oriental indicates an eastern range’ and for Olive-backed Pipit Anthus hodgsoni, it says ‘Olive-backed is factually correct’, but other explanations are more helpful. There are numerous snippets of interesting information in the species accounts, but many accounts are very short. The biographical information for eponyms is particularly brief, with most barely filling one line. It’s true that much more biographical information on Western Palearctic bird eponyms can be found in the excellent Biographies for Birdwatchers (Mearns & Mearns 2022; Brit. Birds 116: 605–606), and shorter ones in The Eponym Dictionary of Birds (Beolens et al. 2014), but this book is supposed to be a one-stop-shop for Western Palearctic bird names, and I feel it’s a missed opportunity not to say a bit more about them. 

The book concludes with 12 pages of ‘Glossary and explanatory notes’, and a ‘Who’s who’ of the people, mostly ornithologists, whose names appear in the species accounts, together with very brief biographical details. If they have also had birds named after them, these are listed. Something should also be said about the title of the book. This is a reference to the changing fortunes of the bird that we usually call Common Gull Larus canus, but which was called Mew Gull in North America. The latter population was formerly a subspecies of Common Gull, but it has now been elevated to a full species as Short-billed Gull L. brachyrhynchus, and thus the name Mew Gull, which has a much older Norse origin, has now vanished. 

There is a lot of interesting information in this book, and many Western Palearctic birders will learn much from it, although at nearly £65 I suspect that not many will buy it. But for those seriously interested in bird names, almost all the information in this new book is readily available elsewhere. For scientific names, the Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names (Jobling 2010) is an essential reference, and for English names The Bird Name Book (Myers 2022) is a mine of information – both of these cover the whole world, not just the Western Palearctic. For eponyms, the two works mentioned earlier give much more biographical detail than the present book. The Vanishing Mew Gull is nicely presented and easy to use, but I suspect my trusted dictionaries will remain my first port of call when I want to learn more about a bird’s name. 

Nigel Redman