What’s in a Name?

Is it a monumental act for the ornithology community (“Collect, Wait, Study,” July/August 2021) to eventually decide, after much wrestling, to remove John Townsend’s name from the species of bird, the Townsend’s warbler? He discovered the species on a harrowing expedition to the Pacific Northwest in 1834 at the age of 25—brave young man! Renaming the Townsend’s warbler actually seems more in the nature of a retroactive modern-day tar and feathering. Perhaps the ornithology community and other proponents of renaming should put a modicum of effort into wrestling with the eradication of slavery that still exists here and throughout the world.

— D.T. Sidwell | Bear, Delaware