Don Baccus wrote:

<I write for the oregonian on natural history (very) occasionally,
<as well as other places, and I can never decide how to
<present bird names: capitalized or not.

Bryan Gates, Victoria:
>My reasons are many, but
>the main one is to educate people to the currently accepted common names of
>birds, as they appear on the AOU list.

Here's a twist...

OK, the AOU has decided that common names for birds should be capitalized
(we all know birds are special, after all).

How about the Brits? If the Brit ornithological usage is to NOT
capitalize (I don't know - I'm curious here), we could find ourselves
in the interesting situation of discussing related birds, one NA
and one Brit, in differing case if we wish to be Ornithologically
Correct.

Of course, if the ornithological standard is consistent throughout
the world then no such conflicts occur (in practice, of course, it
means adopting the standard in use in the country where one's
paper is published).

Yes, I'm in a rather strange and wierd mood today, I don't normally
get down such obscure paths. Spent last night breathing developer
and fixer, B&W photos of the ESA hearing events. We'll be making
them available on the Web here shortly, I'll let y'all know so those
of you still debating the definition of "redneck" can have a few
visual guidelines to help refine the debate...

-Don Baccus-