Jim Lyles wrote:

> You provided this example:
> >"Most investigated Wolf sightings in the Okanogan Highlands were
> > most likely to have been misidentified Coyotes or Dogs."
>
> (My first instinct would be to capitalize, say, "Gray Wolf" or
> "Red Wolf" but to leave "wolf" lower cased. In the same spirit,
> I capitalize "American Robin" but leave "robin" lower cased.)

I agree with Jim entirely; I think it was inappropriate to capitalize
"wolf" in that sentence, and I probably wouldn't have capitalized "dog," as
a dog is a domestic, long human-bred, Gray Wolf (some argue for other canid
genes in dogs as well, but that doesn't change anything) that doesn't
deserve an official common name. Coyote, on the other hand, *is* the
official common name, so the sentence to be correct by our criteria would
have been just as awkward, with one name capitalized and two not.

> All of which makes me wonder--which flora and fauna, aside from birds,
> are dubbed with formal English names by an authoritative body like the
> AOU? And which ones get along with nicknames (from "an eke name"--an
> also name)?

Just speaking for North America, there are official common names for fishes
and for amphibians and reptiles, assigned by "official" committees, as well
as for birds. Interestingly, I don't think that's true for mammals. The
published checklists of NA mammals have been updated by a series of
authors, but they don't constitute an official committee representing any
group such as the American Society of Mammalogists.

There are official butterfly common names, applied by committee, many of
which cause painful groans among the butterfly aficionados I know. The
Dragonfly Society of the Americas just published the official list of
dragonfly common names. There is a list of "official insect common names"
published by the Entomological Society of America, mostly for economically
important insects. There are official tree names, but I'm not so sure
about shrubs and herbs.

I think there are movements afoot to establish "official" common names in
many groups now. Of course these are "English" names from an international
standpoint, as the same plants/animals have Japanese, French, Indian,
Spanish, Vietnamese, etc. names in their countries, and why should English
be sacred? Well, as a matter of fact, since so much scientific
publication, as well as many other forms of international communication,
takes place in English, I suppose English names will end up indeed being
more important on a worldwide scale, secondary to the Latin/Greek
scientific names.

When I talk with German or Mexican people about dragonflies, I *have* to
use scientific names. And that sometimes happens with birds, as well.
Plenty of European ornithologists, and I imagine some birders, learn common
names in several languages (I learned many of them in the old European
Peterson years ago, just for the fun of it, and it sure helped when I went
to Switzerland) as well as scientific names.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416