Just Curious???

[Slqfan]

Hi,

I guess this is the place for this question. I have noticed that the names of birds generally follow a certain format. Such as the following examples:

Western Wood-Pewee
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

Anyway my question is why is the word after the hypen lowercase if it is in the first part of the name, and uppercase if in the second part?

Thanks,

Chet

[cuckooroller]

Hi Chet,
To have an overview of the rather esoteric reasons for this, mostly based on past coining of english common names by various naturalists of the past, one must delve into the meanders of the ICZN (http://www.iczn.org/iczn/index.jsp). There is a mounting tendency to now want to go through all of this stuff and make it at least a bit more coherent. For a simpler overview related mostly to the SACC, look here: http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~remsen/SACCprop214-218.html

A new volume dealing with this rather knotty problem (among other things) is this: http://www.hbw.com/?go=ab7c7d504b7f581e48db42abe6c915734a3ac42715f160 c9c26a7cfd1c5d71c350035134ce1d2a25007a3958040d72c7

Good luck. An arcane and difficult to understand subject for one and all...

[dantheman]

Before you even get onto why the part of the bird name after the hyphen is lower case, there is a whole discussion on whether bird names should be capitalized here:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=20613&highlight=bird+names+capital

Actually, looking at your examples, and assuming one is going for some Capitalization(!) at least, Pewee and Flycatcher are bird family names, whereas sided and rumped are merely describing words.

Another thing; I don't know if the use of hyphens is always followed in the same way by everyone either.

[Murray Lord]

As far as hyphenated surnames (for want of a better word) are concerned, my understanding is that you capitalise the second word if the bird is a member of that family but not otherwise. To illustrate by example, as I may not have explained it well:

Shrike-thrush
Button-quail
Stone-curlew
Owlet-nightjar

as those birds are not thrushes, quail, curlew or nightjars in the strict sense, but

Ground-Dove
Hawk-Owl
Eared-Nightjar

as those birds are doves, owls and nightjars.

There are of course some borderline cases. For example, Painted Snipe or Painted-Snipe or Painted-snipe?

Murray

[bush]

Also, try reading Birds of the World : Recommended English Names by Frank Gill & Minturn Wright (Princeton University Press) 2006 pp 1-9.

[Gentoo]

As far as hyphenated surnames (for want of a better word) are concerned, my understanding is that you capitalise the second word if the bird is a member of that family but not otherwise. To illustrate by example, as I may not have explained it well:

Shrike-thrush
Button-quail
Stone-curlew
Owlet-nightjar

as those birds are not thrushes, quail, curlew or nightjars in the strict sense, but

Ground-Dove
Hawk-Owl
Eared-Nightjar

as those birds are doves, owls and nightjars.

There are of course some borderline cases. For example, Painted Snipe or Painted-Snipe or Painted-snipe?

Murray
I think you're right on with your explanation. This is what I've heard as well although I often fail to remember when writing myself.