Light morph Rough-legged Hawk hunt in both sides of the Cassidy Road at the Southbury Training School,,,also a harrier. Patrick Comins, Meriden Sent from my iPhone

Hi Patrick , Which is the right terminology morph or phase ?           Don Donald A. Hopkins CT Bald Eagle Study Group Windsor, CT USA email: ctbesg@yahoo.com web: http://ctbesg.tripod.com/ On Tuesday, January 21, 2014 12:05 PM, "Comins, Patrick" <PCOMINS@audubon.org> wrote: Light morph Rough-legged Hawk hunt in both sides of the Cassidy Road at the Southbury Training School,,,also a harrier. Patrick Comins, Meriden Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org

I think the terms are essentially interchangeable. I prefer morph over phase though simply because I think it's confusing and makes people thing that it is a phase they go through or that the can switch back and forth rather than two different forms in a steady state. Patrick Comins, Meriden. From: Don Hopkins [mailto:ctbesg@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:43 AM To: Comins, Patrick; CT Birds List Subject: Re: [CT Birds] Southbury Rough-leg Hi Patrick , Which is the right terminology morph or phase ? Don Donald A. Hopkins CT Bald Eagle Study Group Windsor, CT USA email: ctbesg@yahoo.com<mailto:ctbesg@yahoo.com> web: http://ctbesg.tripod.com/ On Tuesday, January 21, 2014 12:05 PM, "Comins, Patrick" <PCOMINS@audubon.org<mailto:PCOMINS@audubon.org>> wrote: Light morph Rough-legged Hawk hunt in both sides of the Cassidy Road at the Southbury Training School,,,also a harrier. Patrick Comins, Meriden Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org

Hi Patrick , Your though sounds good but , Webster's Dictionary morph is  a dimension . R.T.P , R.Taylor as do Brown and Amadon ,all use the term phase to describe coloration . It seems that birders have a tendency to screw up a lot of things . Like chord to describe the tip of the wing , when it is the width of the wing .          Regards , Don   Donald A. Hopkins CT Bald Eagle Study Group Windsor, CT USA email: ctbesg@yahoo.com web: http://ctbesg.tripod.com/ On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:43 AM, Don Hopkins <ctbesg@yahoo.com> wrote: Hi Patrick , Which is the right terminology morph or phase ?           Don Donald A. Hopkins CT Bald Eagle Study Group Windsor, CT USA email: ctbesg@yahoo.com web: http://ctbesg.tripod.com/ On Tuesday, January 21, 2014 12:05 PM, "Comins, Patrick" <PCOMINS@audubon.org> wrote: Light morph Rough-legged Hawk hunt in both sides of the Cassidy Road at the Southbury Training School,,,also a harrier. Patrick Comins, Meriden Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org

Morph as a word. In the senses we mean, it's really quite recent -- hardly older than me. 1) Oxford Eng. Dictionary, Supplement (1987), Morph (4): "variant form of an animal produced by genetic differences or (in later use) one of several forms exhibited by an animal in the course of its life cycle." The citations there show morph = "variant form" to be a 1955 coining by JS Huxley; by 1970's, it's used of a stage in the development of, e.g., aphids. 2) This is from the Greek word, where "morphê" means shape or form as it appears, and this English use is a good one. (Much better than "phase" which strongly suggests one stage in a life cycle.) 3) Webster's: which one? It's not a copyrighted name, so this could refer to just about anything. (It's not in the Merriam Webster 2nd, which lacks the word altogether. Original OED has it only as a short form of morphew, a skin disease.) 4) "Dimension"? Does it give an example? This seems very odd to me, and in fact hard to understand. For a permanent form of a subset of a species, "morph" seems to me linguistically the better coinage than "phase." On Jan 24, 2014, at 3:12 PM, Don Hopkins <ctbesg@yahoo.com> wrote: > Hi Patrick , Your though sounds good but , Webster's Dictionary morph is a dimension . R.T.P , R.Taylor as do Brown and Amadon ,all use the term phase to describe coloration . It seems that birders have a tendency to screw up a lot of things . Like chord to describe the tip of the wing , when it is the width of the wing . Regards , Don > > Donald A. Hopkins > CT Bald Eagle Study Group > Windsor, CT USA > email: ctbesg@yahoo.com > web: http://ctbesg.tripod.com/ > > > > On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:43 AM, Don Hopkins <ctbesg@yahoo.com> wrote: > > Hi Patrick , Which is the right terminology morph or phase ? Don > > Donald A. Hopkins > CT Bald Eagle Study Group > Windsor, CT USA > email: ctbesg@yahoo.com > web: http://ctbesg.tripod.com/ > > > > On Tuesday, January 21, 2014 12:05 PM, "Comins, Patrick" <PCOMINS@audubon.org> wrote: > > Light morph Rough-legged Hawk hunt in both sides of the Cassidy Road at the Southbury Training School,,,also a harrier. > > Patrick Comins, Meriden > > Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org

Say what? -----Original Message----- From: CTBirds [mailto:ctbirds-bounces@lists.ctbirding.org] On Behalf Of Arthur Shippee Sent: Friday, January 24, 2014 5:12 PM To: CT Birds List Subject: Re: [CT Birds] Southbury Rough-leg Morph as a word. In the senses we mean, it's really quite recent -- hardly older than me. 1) Oxford Eng. Dictionary, Supplement (1987), Morph (4): "variant form of an animal produced by genetic differences or (in later use) one of several forms exhibited by an animal in the course of its life cycle." The citations there show morph = "variant form" to be a 1955 coining by JS Huxley; by 1970's, it's used of a stage in the development of, e.g., aphids. 2) This is from the Greek word, where "morphê" means shape or form as it appears, and this English use is a good one. (Much better than "phase" which strongly suggests one stage in a life cycle.) 3) Webster's: which one? It's not a copyrighted name, so this could refer to just about anything. (It's not in the Merriam Webster 2nd, which lacks the word altogether. Original OED has it only as a short form of morphew, a skin disease.) 4) "Dimension"? Does it give an example? This seems very odd to me, and in fact hard to understand. For a permanent form of a subset of a species, "morph" seems to me linguistically the better coinage than "phase." On Jan 24, 2014, at 3:12 PM, Don Hopkins <ctbesg@yahoo.com> wrote: > Hi Patrick , Your though sounds good but , Webster's Dictionary morph is a dimension . R.T.P , R.Taylor as do Brown and Amadon ,all use the term phase to describe coloration . It seems that birders have a tendency to screw up a lot of things . Like chord to describe the tip of the wing , when it is the width of the wing . Regards , Don > > Donald A. Hopkins > CT Bald Eagle Study Group > Windsor, CT USA > email: ctbesg@yahoo.com > web: http://ctbesg.tripod.com/ > > > > On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:43 AM, Don Hopkins <ctbesg@yahoo.com> wrote: > > Hi Patrick , Which is the right terminology morph or phase ? Don > > Donald A. Hopkins > CT Bald Eagle Study Group > Windsor, CT USA > email: ctbesg@yahoo.com > web: http://ctbesg.tripod.com/ > > > > On Tuesday, January 21, 2014 12:05 PM, "Comins, Patrick" <PCOMINS@audubon.org> wrote: > > Light morph Rough-legged Hawk hunt in both sides of the Cassidy Road at the Southbury Training School,,,also a harrier. > > Patrick Comins, Meriden > > Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org _______________________________________________ This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org ________________________________ This electronic mail message may contain information which is (a) LEGALLY PRIVILEGED, PROPRIETARY IN NATURE, OR OTHERWISE PROTECTED BY LAW FROM DISCLOSURE, and (b) intended only for the use of the Addressee (s) names herein. If you are not the Addressee(s), or the person responsible for delivering this to the Addressee (s), you are hereby notified that reading, copying, or distributing this message is prohibited. If you have received this electronic mail message in error, please contact us immediately at (617) 646-7800 and take the steps necessary to delete the message completely from your computer system. Thank you, Please visit ERM's web site: http://www.erm.com