I think the rule of capitalising things for scientific purposes would work well.

Ray Saintonge <saintonge@telus.net> wrote:

daniwo59@aol.com wrote:

> Where was the discussion for the naming convention for animals. A new
> user is reverting the Canada goose, and I really don't want to get
> into that whole fight again.
>
> Danny

It was never resolved.
According to the The Globe and Mail Style Book: "The generic English
names of animals and plants, and common adjectives attached to them, are
lower-case". Certainly the provisions of a Canadian style book should
apply to a Canadian species.

Also 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"

In all fairness one on-line site (also Canadian)
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/courses.hp/biol335/Lecture8-9.html does
note "that the common names of birds are now usually capitalized".
"Usually" is important here; it is not in the form of a rule, but
appears to reflect a custom.

This exception applies only to birds. The material is at best
contradictory

Eclecticology


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