On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, Don Baccus wrote:

> Certainly the world of print supports your contention. I usually submit is
> no caps except for proper nouns (i.e. spotted towhee, Townsend's warbler) but
> the reality is the editor of whatever rag I deal with does whatever they want,
> and as you note, their's no standardization.
>
> The capitalization of names is really kinda archaic, and it seems to
> be only the bird world that has hung onto the convention. I suspect
> that over the next century or so that the bird world will end the
> practice, just as we no longer write of Cats and Dogs or Roses and
> Pansies...

Actually Don, it is only the proper name for a species of birds that the
AOU capitalizes. When referring to towhees, cardinals, sparrows and such,
it is not capitalized, Spotted Towhees, Northern Cardinals, Song Sparrows
are. To use your example, cats, dogs and roses would not be, but Bobcat,
African Wild Dog, and Nootka Rose would (if such common names were
standardized).

As Michael Hobbs pointed out, it can help avoid confusion in many cases.

Russell

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