Further to my previous expressions on the subject, i recently added the
following to another user's talk page.
The Style Manual for Biological Journals as "Prepared by the
Committee on Form and Style of the Conference of Biological Editors
of the American Institute of Biological Sciences" states at page 68,
"Generic names used as vernacular names are neither italicized nor
capitalized" Since an other authoritative source has indicated that
capitalization is usually done among ornithologists (though it is
not a rule) I will leave birds alone ... for now.
What exactly does that mean. "Generic names" - doesn't that mean "names
of a genus". So, for instance, if you use the generic name Gorilla as
the common name, "gorilla", you don't have to capitalize it. It seems to
me that while in a normal sentence, the word "gorilla" should not be
capitalized, it ought to be capitalized when it is referring to the
species as a whole. And that your reference doesn't seem to be referring
to what you think it is referring to.
A rereading of the item that I quoted does give some support for
your interpretation. The sentence is repeated on the next page with
the single change of "vernacular" to "common".(I've since won
another much thicker book about writing style in biology, but it
might not get to me for another couple weeks.) The Latin species
name is never capitalized anyway. Capitals and single quotes are
used, however, for cultivars. This may give support for a similar
practice for dog breeds, but I'm not yet ready to take a stand on
that. A little later the book gives examples and particular rules
relating to insects, plants and bacteria. For birds it refers us to
the American Ornithologists Union's check-list of North American
birds, but gives no examples. It is silent about mammals and other
vertebrates.
The Globe and Mail Style Book directs lower case for all animals,
including birds, except when what would otherwise be a common name
is involved. It is more direct than most general style manuals when
dealing with this, and that gives some weight when we are concerned
with a work of general knowledge such as Wikipedia.
The other point that favors lower case is the general rule in titles
to lower case all words unless there is a good reason to the contrary.
The next source is an online one at
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/courses.hp/biol335/Lecture8-9.html I
quote
* capitalization:
* unless the common name includes a proper name (e.g., person's name or
place name), most common names are not capitalized
* however, there are exceptions for certain groups of organisms. One
obvious exception is that the common names of birds are now usually capitalized
* e.g. white-tailed deer vs Atlantic salmon vs Richardson's ground
squirrel vs Great Horned Owl vs Englemann spruce vs balsam poplar vs Rocky Mountain
juniper
* for vertebrates and probably other groups of organisms, there are
international committees that recommend on common names in each language
* e.g. the sparrow hawk is now the American Kestrel
Note the word "usually" in regards to birds. The practice follows
the American Ornithologists Union but is by no means universal. I am
at least prepared to concede the matter in regards to capitalizing
bird names, in the absence of further evidence.
There is no such list for mammals, and apparently none for other
vertebrates, but I have not explored these others.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game Writer's Guide at
http://www.cf.adfg.state.ak.us/geninfo/download/adfguide/wrtrguid.pdf
supports lower case for all species, including birds where it does
note that its view is contrary to that of the Ornithological Union.
From the publication The Prairie Naturalist at
http://www.fhsu.edu/biology/pn/pnstylerules.htm we have "Common
names of organisms are not capitalized except for proper nouns or
adjectives that are part of the name, e.g., green-winged teal,
American coot, Cooper's hawk."
The Newsletter of the Baltimore Bird Club at
http://baltimorebirdclub.org/cn/cn0010.html states,
"Many birding publications follow an unofficial convention for
capitalization of bird names. I have chosen to follow this
convention in Chip Notes because it makes the name stand out and it
honors the objects of our devotion. If you would follow these
"rules" in your submissions it would save a lot of time. The
"rules"
run something like this:
* All non-hyphenated parts of a bird's name are capitalized.
* The hyphenated parts that are a type of bird are also capitalized.
* The hyphenated parts that are NOT themselves a type of bird, such as
"-bellied" or "-tailed," are not capitalized.
A good illustration of all these principles is "Yellow-crowned
Night-Heron."
Based on all of the above I reach the conclusion that all common names
of life forms should be lower cased, with the possible exception of birds.
Eclecticology