Subject: [Tweeters] Proper writing of bird common names
Date: Feb 13 11:29:22 2006
From: Wilson Cady - gorgebirds at juno.com


Trileigh,
I believe that a bird's name is a proper name and should be
capitalized. This helps avoid confusion such as in the case when you are
talking about a Blue Jay which is not the same as if you were to say,
"This morning I saw two blue jays land on my feeder that turned out to be
a Steller's Jay and a Western Scrub Jay". Other examples include: Rufous
Hummingbird might be a magnificent hummingbird but it isn't a Magnificent
Hummingbird, a Snowy Egret can be a great egret to find in Washington
State but it is hard to confuse with a Great Egret.
Widgeon is the old spelling of wigeon that was changed decades
ago, it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:17:37 -0800 "Tucker, Trileigh" <TRI at seattleu.edu>
writes:
Hi Tweeters,
I know we've got a lot of grammarians and spelling experts here -
thanks in advance for your advice. When writing about a species, I have
been assuming that it's not proper to capitalize the name in the course
of a statement: for instance, "The great blue heron landed on top of my
spruce" would be correct. Is this right? Or should it be written, "The
Great Blue Heron landed..."?
And while we're at it, is "widgeon" *ever* the correct spelling? I
don't think so, but I see it so frequently that I've begun to wonder!

Trileigh Tucker
Lincoln Park, West Seattle
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