Subject: [Tweeters] RE: Capitalization
Date: Mar 31 12:09:16 2011
From: James West - jameswest at earthlink.net


Kevin: that kind of 'vague' adjective in English common names isn't confined to butterflies -- on the other side of the Atlantic you can find it in the world of birds. Phylloscopus trochiloides trochiloides is the Greenish Warbler, as distinct from the (closely related, as one would hope!) Green Warbler and the Bright Green Warbler. The distinctions are at the sub-specific level, which is one argument for using the scientific names?

James West
Seattle
----- Original Message -----
From: Kevin Purcell
To: jeff gibson ; Tweeters
Cc: Kevin Purcell
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] RE: Capitalization


On Mar 31, 2011, at 9:45 AM, jeff gibson wrote:

> I thought I did'nt have anything to say about this topic until I started reading Robert Michael Pyle's "Mariposa Road" last night. It's a great read about his adventures on his own "butterfly big year" - traveling the country seeking out as many butterfly species as he could. As in his previous books it's a very entertaining and educational read. It's a great read for naturalist's in general - lots of tidbits about birds, plants, people, ( and beer).

I recommend it too.

But have your favorite butterfly guides ready to look things up. Kaufman and Pyle's Audubon guide work well but both are needed because the names don't always match up (either common or binomial). He sticks to NABA common names except when he doesn't.

I'm a butterfly neophyte but I found I was getting a feel for the families, genera groupings and their common features along with their binomial names as I worked through the book. That was a good idea as Pyle moves back and forth between the common name and binomial name and some poetic variations in the text.

> In this book I did find the uncapitalized common names of birds and butterflies somewhat confusing, sometimes amusing.

Agreed.

Butterfly names are even better than bird names with "vague" adjectives included.

The one that sticks in my mind was "a purplish copper". I though he was just being poetically descriptive (he does have a poet's license). "Ah so which one of the copper's is a bit purplish" I though as I flipped through Kaufman. It wasn't until I found the species that I realized that that's a common name Purplish Copper (in birdspeak) not a vague description.

There are plenty of others: tawny crescent; lustrous copper; reddish alpine; dusky azure; greenish blue; purplish fritillary.

The other confusion in Mariposa Road is Pyle doesn't use the hyphens that others, like Kaufman, Glassberg, NABA or Pelham's catalog use, adding another layer of confusion when sleuthing an unfamiliar name.

Sometimes the effects combine: the two banded checkered skipper is not a description but the "Two-banded Checkered-skipper" and not the "Two-banded Checkered Skipper". It's under C for Checkered-skipper in the index not in with the other Skippers under S. Same with the orange headed roadside skipper and plenty of others.

> When writing a common name that has only descriptive terms such as yellow-bellied sapsucker (or marmot) ect. it is often unclear if it's a description of a thing or a name. Especially in a book where the author is as good as Pyle in painting pictures in words of the nuance's of color and texture and light found in nature.

I think that's part of the "problem" that Pyle is both a good poet and a good biologist. I really enjoy reading his writing for this reason. He has such a good way with words to illustrate a concept he can use a precise latinate technical term in a sentence that also has a poetic word order or word choice.

Despite the odd confusion in the nomenclature (or perhaps because of the odd confusion because they made me think about what I was looking for in the field guides) I really liked the book. But I read it one short (a few pages) chapter at a time. More than one at a time feels like stuffing yourself with delicious pastries.
--
Kevin Purcell (Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA)
kevinpurcell at pobox.com
http://kevinpurcell.posterous.com
http://twitter.com/kevinpurcell

_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters