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Trevor and all,
It is not random. The point being
taxonomic. I'll explain using your examples and the same applies to many others:
Night-Heron is a Heron, Shrike-thrush is not a thrush, Brush-turkey is not a
turkey, Cuckoo-Dove is a Dove, etc., etc. The second word is given in
capitals if there is an actual relationship to the group of that name. Of course
it is confusing that the same rule doesn't apply to the first word (as in a
Cuckoo-Dove is not related to a cuckoo but it is to doves and a Cuckoo-shrike is
not related to either (just resembles them).
Clear as mud?
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From:
Trevor Ford <>
To:
birding-aus <>
Date:
Monday, 15 December 2003 15:13
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] More on
Nomenclature
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.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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