[WikiEN-l] naming convention for birds and others

Tue Jun 3 08:47:53 UTC 2003

In a message dated 03/06/03 09:14:17 GMT Daylight Time, saintonge at telus.net 
writes:

> 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

A further example of the final para's use of capitalisation is Wilson's 
Storm-Petrel, where petrel is capitalised because the storm-petrels are a group of 
birds, and petrel is is not a part of the bird.

I don't know why we are fighting this battle for the at least the fourth time 
since I started contributing in Feb. I thought that a consensus had been 
agreed through wide debate on the mailing list and various talk pages. I know that 
for the fish, some contributors are happy with lower case, which is fine. You 
must have seen the reasons put forth by eg Tannin and myself for the current 
capitalisation of bird English names (scientific names I don't think are a 
problem). I have within reach four books, three on birds, and one on cetaceans. 
All species are capitalised. On my bookshelves I have bird books (too many), 
and others on mammals, insects etc. All capitalise species names. 

Since there are lower case links to articles, nothing is lost in terms of 
searches. 

In any case, if we must re-open this discussion again, I don't think 
reverting random articles is particularly constructive or open, nor what would be 
expected from an experienced contributor.