G'day,
Surprisingly (?) I've received not one reply to my query on Nomenclature and
Taxonomy, apart from being sent a couple of links to web sites that outline
up-to-date thinking by authorities outside Australia. So I must presume
that nobody in these parts really knows or cares, and that perhaps the Birds
Australia position is one of embarrassment.
I have another query. Again, please send any replies that are not to the
list to This is not a personal address so
please don't send unrelated topics to it - thanks.
I seem to remember a thread some time ago about the acceptance of
hyphenisation and capitalisation within bird names. Much as I dislike a
capital letter immediately following a hyphen, I want to obey the rules.
Actually, I want to understand them! I once thought that if a bird name was
being qualified by some sort of attribute, then both words were capitalised
(for example Night-Heron) but if the composite bird name was built from two
other bird names then the second name was not capitalised (for example
Shrike-thrush). But then, looking through Christidis and Boles, I found
Brush-turkey, Cuckoo-Dove, etc., etc. So are there any rules or is it all
completely random? Also, I see in the text Reed Warbler but in the
checklist Reed-Warbler.
The Birds Australia 14/2/03 draft checklist, which I had hoped to follow,
contains other inconsistencies. I presume that Norfolk Island Ground-dove
is just a mistake, as all the other similarly named doves are of the form
X-Dove. But how about the Christidis and Boles Cuckoo-shrike that has
become Cuckoo-Shrike? Is this another mistake or a new way of thinking?
Other oddities are Fairy-wren and Emu-wren. Why are their names hyphenated
whilst all other composite wren names are not?
This may all sound like a bit of a whinge but I am just trying to present
the up-to-date and correct position in my publication on the birds of
Buckley's Hole.
Cheers - Trevor Ford.
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