Below are responses (kept anonymous) re: my query about capitalizing common names. As suspected, birds are "unique." - Scott
-- I'm all for capitalizing common names IF there is agreement on what they are. Capitalization implies (to me, at least) that they have been determined by some widely-accepted and appropriate process. They've been "certified," so to speak. But, the problem with common names (esp. for plants) as we all know, is that there is no accepted or conventional usage. What is tulip poplar to one person is yellow poplar to another and tulip tree to a third. So, until plant common names are standardized (which will never happen), I'm quite content to use lower case. -- Its true that bird common names are normally capitalized, though this has not been so for at least mammals, and probably many other taxa. A friend and mentor of mine recently gave me a compelling argument that, editorial traditions be damned, we should simply capitalize all common names. Is a pygmy rabbit just a very small rabbit of some unspecified kind, or a species as clearly denoted by Pygmy Rabbit? Is a vagrant shrew an extralimital shrew record of some undesignated species--or is it a Vagrant Shrew? I think my friend is right, and capitalizing all common names is the right way to go and the wave of the future. He gave several examples in which recent field guides etc. have been breaking with the non-capitalization tradition, and editors have been coming around to the idea. I say we should do what makes the most sense to us, and push this envelope. -- I too do not capitalize common names, and I have also noticed this difference between the "plant" and "animal worlds". I would suggest however that capitalization may indeed be the way to go when in comes to conservation...more caps = more implied importance? The American Ornithologists' Union does indeed have an 'official' system of capitalization of common names of bird species, as listed formally in the AOU Check-list (http://www.aou.org/checklist/ index.php3); the same system is used by the British Ornithologists' Union for species in their part of the world. This system is used not just in field guides but also by most ornithological journals: Auk, Condor, Wilson Bulletin, Journal of Field Ornithology, Ibis, etc. (though not Journal of Avian Biology). The system calls for capitalization of each word in the common name when referring to a single species. If the terminal part of the name (which often refers to a larger group of species to which the species in question belongs) is a hyphenated compound word, both component words get capitalized (this is the AOU system; in the BOU check-list, only the first word of the compound word is capitalized). If the name includes a hyphenated compound word that precedes the terminal part of the name, only the first word of that compound word gets capitalized. Thus ... Mallard, Canada Goose, Northern Cardinal Black-capped Chickadee, Chestnut-sided Warbler Island Scrub-Jay (The scrub-jay group, as currently recognized, includes three species, Island, Western, and Florida. These form a closely related subset (clade) within a larger genus, Aphelocoma.) Both rules for compound words can apply to a single species: Black-crowned Night-Heron, White-faced Storm-Petrel A few species have names that include more than two words. All get capitalized. Great Blue Heron, Great Horned Owl When referring to multiple species in the same group, the group name does not get capitalized. Thus ... Black-capped and Carolina chickadees, Florida and Western scrub-jays -- Funny, I asked about two weeks ago our in house editor (every department should have one), and she explained exactly what you said. Official names and proper nouns capitalized, rest in lower case. -- I am an editor of biological publications and I frequently come across this issue. It is absolutely not your imagination that zoological common names tend to more often be capitalized than botanical common names, and that authors with different taxonomic backgrounds tend to treat this issue differently. I also think you are correct about the field guides using caps for emphasis. My rule of thumb has also been to capitalize proper names, with lowercase for all others, regardless of taxa. -- As I understand it, the American Ornithological Union standard is to capitalize all common names of specific birds, e.g., Canada Goose and Greater White-fronted Goose, but to not capitalize when talking about groups of species, e.g., geese, quail. As far as I know, all other taxonomic organizations do not capitalize common names unless it is a proper noun -- so you have mule deer and Roosevelt elk. When writing for publication, I go by this latter rule even for birds. -- In fact, one point of consternation among birders is that the common names of the species may change as they are redefined by the standardizing body (e.g., Green Heron --> Green-backed Heron --> Green Heron again). -- I've heard that common names are capitalized for birds because these names are standardized by the American Ornithologists' Union or some other body. Hence, they are "official" names for that species, as opposed to un-standardized common names often given to plants or other organisms. In other words, they are as precise (and official) as a Latin name. --- Scott Ruhren, Ph.D. Senior Director of Conservation Audubon Society of Rhode Island 12 Sanderson Road Smithfield, RI 02917-2600 401-949-5454
