Stellar Speller Corrects Slip

Sun., Nov. 22, 1998

Jim Acton, a Spokane birder, has verbally taken Outdoors editor Rich Landers to the woodshed for an error in a recent birding story.

“After all these years of experience and with all the research data available to your office, I am amazed that the Steller’s jay is splashed throughout your article on Nov. 8 is the non-existent Stellar’s jay,” wrote Acton.

“The Steller’s jay is named after Georg Wilhelm Steller, who discovered the bird on Kayak Island (Alaska) on July 20, 1741. Mineralogist Steller was a member of the Russian expedition commanded by Witus Jonassen Bering, which discovered the Alaska Territory.

“So, it’s a ruler across the knuckles and an assignment to the blackboard where you will write one hundred times - it’s STELLER’S, not Stellars.

“But don’t get too depressed. It’s also misspelled in a Washington Fish and Wildlife Department checklist of the birds of Lincoln County and in a recently published field guide to Washington State birds.”

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