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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kb57" data-source="post: 3603878" data-attributes="member: 133932">Henning, I guess I value what I perceive, rightly or wrongly, to be both an aesthetically appealing and grammatically valid convention in written English. I take your point completely about ease of reading, especially if you are from a non-native English speaking background (although I have to say your written English appears perfect!).  I'm afraid I don't read or speak German, but I'm aware that capitalisation is much more extensive and correct in German grammar. In French (which I do at least read pretty well) the opposite seems true; something I pulled randomly off the web: Le vanneau huppé est présent sur l'ensemble de l'hémisphère nord.En France, il niche dans les trois quarts nord du pays et hiverne sur la quasi totalité du territoire  Now - turning to my other point - the main barrier to understanding for most non-French (but French-speaking) birders in that passage would be identifying the subject is the lapwing...I agree that capitalisation would help draw attention to it, but what would help even more would be to include 'Vanellus vanellus' after the French name.  We have a nomenclature for international communication - although we don't need to use it in an English language bird forum, it would help if we learnt a few more scientific names - botanists and entomologists routinely communicate in 'latin'.Agree with you on bold face, although I do use bold for emphasis, sometimes when I'm deliberately trying to be shouty (as in 'yaay, I've just seen species x') |=)|I'm sure you didn't mean to be patronising, but I had appreciated that.What I had in mind was what has already been alluded to elsewhere in the post, which is the propensity of some with a poor grasp of grammar to randomly capitalise for emphasis.</blockquote>

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