Proper writing of bird common namesTrileigh,

As a corollary to your question about capitalization of common bird names (and the clear answers I've seen so far - I'm on digest-), another pet-peeve is what happens when you write about having seen multiple species in the same genus. As in: "I saw Red-necked, Horned, and Western grebes at Deception Pass." Notice that since the "grebes" part referred to multiple species and therefore is not really part of the common name, it is not capitalized.

I know one member of the American Ornithologists' Union who is particularly adamant about this, but I regularly see this "rule" "violated" in ornithological periodicals. So go figure. Of course editors are only human....

Martin Muller, Seattle
martinmuller at msn.com<mailto:martinmuller at msn.com>