LeConte Who? (Or Which LeConte?)

People who know me know that I think the recent move to change the names of all the birds that are named for people is a silly (to be kind) idea. I am not going to rehash all those arguments now, but LeConte’s Sparrow is an example of the interesting history that gets lost under this initiative. There are many books that give the stories and biographies behind bird (and other animal and plant) names. I have a shelf full of them! The standard reference for American and Canadian bird names is Audubon to Xantus: The Lives of Those Commemorated in North American Bird Names by Barbara and Richard Mearns, published in 1992. Much of the material in this post is drawn from that excellent source.

The first scientific description of the bird now called LeConte’s Sparrow was written by J. J. Audubon in 1844 based on a specimen collected by J. G. Bell on May 24, 1843 on Audubon’s expedition up the Missouri River. (Yes, this is the person Bell’s Vireo is named for.) In his description, Audubon writes: “I have named this interesting species after my young friend Doctor LE CONTE, son of Major LE CONTE, so well known among naturalists, and who is like his father, much attached to the study of natural history.” Note, Audubon did not use any first names in his dedication. This has apparently given rise to confusion since Audubon’s dedication in the early 19th Century. The problem is that the LeConte family had a lot of members interested in natural history. Louis LeConte was a botanist in Georgia. He had two sons, John LeConte who became a well known physicist and Joseph LeConte who became a well known geologist. Then there was John Eatton LeConte who was active in botany and zoology who lived in New York. This LeConte had a son named John Lawrence LeConte who became probably the top North American entomologist of the 19th Century.

The ornithologist Elliot Coues in his 1872 publication on North American birds decided the bird was named for John Eatton LeConte. In 1972, Edward S. Gruson in his book Words for Birds, said the sparrow was named for John LeConte, the physicist son of Louis LeConte. More recently Bo Beolens and Michael Watkins in their 2003 book Whose Bird? Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate follow Gruson. Even more recently, Beolens and Watkins, now with Michael Grayson as coauthor of their 2014 book The Eponym Dictionary of Birds still say the sparrow is named for John LeConte, the son of Louis LeConte, but they say Audubon may have been referring to his cousin John Lawrence LeConte. I trust everyone reading this is now fairly confused.

Now let us return to Barbara and Richard Mearns. They point out that John LeConte (son of Louis LeConte) did study in New York in 1838 - 1841 so might have met Audubon, who lived in New York, but his father Louis was not a Major. On the other hand John Eatton LeConte was indeed a Major and his son John Lawrence LeConte was completing medical studies in New York City in the early 1840’s and by 1844 was already well known for his natural history work though he was still only nineteen years old. The Mearns therefore argue that it seems obvious Audubon must have been referring to John Lawrence LeConte when he wrote his description of the sparrow. 

In 1850 while traveling in Arizona, John Lawrence LeConte collected a pale thrasher and sent the specimen to the naturalist George N. Lawrence (for whom Lawrence’s Goldfinch is named). In 1851 G. N. Lawrence described it as a new species and it became known as LeConte’s Thrasher.

Thus the resolution of the question of which LeConte that Barbara and Richard Mearns argue for means that LeConte’s Thrasher and LeConte’s Sparrow are named for the same person rather than two different people both named John LeConte!

A final note for anyone who shares my historical and natural history interests. Barbara and Richard Mearns have two other classic books Biographies for Birdwatchers: The Lives of Those Commemorated in Western Palearctic Bird Names published in 1988 that covers European birds and The Bird Collectors published in 1998 which has a worldwide scope.

LATER EDIT: If one accepts the sparrow being named for John LeConte (son of Louis) then the bird is named for someone who served in the Confederacy during the American Civil War which we know the people who want to get rid of bird names that are named for people they consider questionable object to. However, the rather convincing argument made by the Mearns means the LeConte’s Sparrow is named for a surgeon who served very high in the Union Army during the Civil War.