[texbirds] Re: silly adherence to 'rules' regarding capitalization
- From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "antshrike1@xxxxxxx" <antshrike1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 18:44:28 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings Dan (and all):
I have been fighting this one with the editors of the New York Times and The
New Yorker for decades. The example I use is yellow warbler. 'Which specific
warbler with 'yellow' in its plumage are you talking about?' has been my
standard plea. My pleas have fallen on deaf ears - or unreasoning central
nervous systems - and I treasure the fact that there is at least one other
person who is bothered by this nonsensical adherence to 'the rules'.
Fat Tony; Lubbock
________________________________
From: "antshrike1@xxxxxxx" <antshrike1@xxxxxxx>
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2013 6:16 PM
Subject: [texbirds] Yellow-bellied Flycatcher vs. yellow-bellied flycatcher
While sitting in the doctor's office yesterday, I was reading the May spring
migration/birding issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. I was dismayed
but not surprised to see all of the bird names written beginning with lower
case letters except for names that involved a person's or place's name. Thus
Cliff Shackelford's article about Mississippi Kites was about "Mississippi
kites". And the article about how rare birds can show up during migration was
illustrated with a photo of a blue mockingbird. Other birds mentioned in the
article included masked tityra and elegant trogon, although the photo of the
"elegant trogon" was labeled "Elegant trogon".
I see this frequently in posts on Texbirds by people new to the birding world
and it is understandable. But Texas Parks and Wildlife should know better. I
know why they do it this way. It's because some old crusty grammar teacher
(I'm only speaking from experience) very effectively brainwashed all the
editors about the proper use of capital letters. They are just being diligent
editors and following the rules.
Your response may be "So what?" Well, these articles are written is a very
basic, dumbed-down style, so as to not scare away basic nature loving Texans
with too much information. And for this magazine, I think that is entirely
appropriate. The problem is your basic "person on the street" has no concept
of "species" and they're probably wondering "How in heck did that mockingbird
turn blue?" "Darned if it ain't a blue mockingbird!"
Starting a common bird name with lower case letters fails to communicate that a
particular bird is of a specific species (redundant?) and not just exhibiting
a particular plumage or structural trait. Thus yellow-bellied flycatcher is
simply stating that some type of flycatcher (whatever that is) has a yellow
belly. This would include several empids, young Eastern Phoebes, Western,
Cassin's, Couch's and Tropical Kingbirds, Greater Kiskadee, etc. But
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher means we are talking about Empidonax flaviventris, a
particular species with a very specific set of traits, behaviors and genome,
and not one of the species mentioned previously. Since few of us speak Latin,
a common name with each part beginning with upper case letters communicates
better that the Latin genus and specific epithet. A tufted titmouse (Don't ask
me what a titmouse is!) might indeed be a Tufted Timouse or it could be an Oak
Titmouse, Juniper Titmouse or maybe
a Black-crested Titmouse.
Is the rare stygian owl really an owl from the river Styx? By their rules it
should be Stygian owl. But Stygian Owl means Asio stygius and you can argue
with the ornithologist about the appropriate nature of that specific epithet.
Well, you get the point.
I propose a massive letter writing campaign to the editors at Texas Parks and
Wildlife Magazine to try to encourage them to write bird names (and other
species of animals and plants) beginning with upper case letters. I know this
would help enhance communication. We need to start somewhere. How can we
expect the public to want to save a particular species when they don't even
know what the word "species" means.
I feel better.
Dan Jones, Weslaco
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