I don't know about the s(S?)outhern h(H?)emisphere, Diann, but in the
English-speaking zone to the north of the e(E?)quator, the hyphen exhibits
a prounced clinal distribution. British usage seems to be "hyphenate
everything, you can always go back and take out on or two if they make
you." This rule largely holds in eastern Canada as well. The hyphen thins
out progressively, however, the farther west one goes across the continent.
Most authorities agree that it is now close to extirpation in California,
although the occasional sighting is still being claimed in remote parts of
the state. The hyphen has been totally absent from the Silicon Valley area
for a generation, and up here, one must treat any report of a hyphen from
the Redmond vicinty with extreme skepticism.

Hal Opperman
Medina, WA

At 1:05 PM -0800 10/26/98, Diann MacRae wrote:
>Jane and Tweets,
>
>Isn't variety the spice of life!!?? I took ornithology, mammalogy, etc.,
>during Frank Richardson's time and we used lower case. (But, no, he
>wouldn't grade off if we didn't.)
>
>As far as runaway hyphenation (only my opinion), I have never figured some
>of the hyphens out. Is there justification somewhere?
>
>It was, and is, interesting to note that Roberts, the South African bird
>bible, plus all of their other guides, use almost no hyphens. To the other
>extreme, bird names are run together: silverycheeked hornbill,
>blackshouldered kite, woollynecked stork, etc. Very few hyphens. I asked
>when I was there if, perhaps, it was because the Afrikaans language tends
>to run everything together, but it was thought not. Language usage is
>certainly diverse and interesting.