User:Shyamal/bird names

Birds have been conspicuously present around humans, and thanks to their appearance, calls and behaviour, many species are often easily recognizable and differentiated from birds of other kinds or species. Insights into how prehistoric human cultures may have classified birds is provided by studies in ethno-ornithology, the study of human relationships with birds, particularly in traditional cultures of hunter-gatherers, agricultural, pastoral and other communities that live off the land. Folk-taxonomy or the names in use through traditions involve two parts, knowing the characteristics of the birds to which a name applies and differentiating them from others; and the identification of similarities and dissimilarities so as to form more generic groups of species. There are widespread variations in the depth of traditional knowledge on birds and a lot has been lost in modern times due to the distance between everyday human life and natural habitats. Writing about how traditional knowledge varied across cultures, Ludlow Griscom noted that while the Hawaiians were exceptional observers of birds, the ancient Greeks and Romans were particularly poor. He also noted how a knowledge of some birds familiar in Britain became the basis for the names of American birds used by early settlers in America and often conflicted with the relationships found by ornithologists.

The antiquity of names.

The identification of species.

Understanding variation and similarities.

Understanding evolution and tracing evolutionary history.

Explorations around the world.

Effort to make comprehensive catalogues.

The use of Latin names.

The use of binomials.

The use of English names.

The case for conserving folk/local names - both English and non-English.

The Atlantic divide

The case for standardization.

English names matching phylogeny. The problem of instability.

The case for capitals!

>the history of capital usage

>rationalizations

>debates

The use of hyphens.

Are species - a class with a name, sets of individuals with certain characters ... unique entities?

Are breeds/cultivars/mutants proper nouns?

Are clades unique entities

Are clades proper nouns?

Are species names proper nouns? Proper names?

To find



 * Martin L. Grant (1951) The Origin of the Common Names of Birds. Bios. 22(2):116-119. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4605362

Capitals use

 * John Ray (1678) - an excess of capitals - https://archive.org/stream/ornithologyFran00Will#page/2/mode/2up
 * Swainson (1837) - uses lower case except for Drongos(!) - https://archive.org/stream/onnaturalhistor221836swai#page/8/mode/2up/
 * Swainson (1835) - uses caps - https://archive.org/stream/treatiseongeogra00swai#page/42/mode/2up
 * Ibis v 1. 1859 HB Tristram uses caps - http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35129#page/51/mode/1up
 * Charles Darwin - The origin of species - lower case - https://archive.org/stream/originofspecies01darwuoft#page/25/mode/1up
 * Annals and Magazine of Natural History 1841 - http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/22162689 - Limax maximus ... This, the common "large grey slug," is equally abundant in north and south. In the stomach of the Song Thrush (Turdus muscius), ....
 * Bruce Campbell & Elizabeth Lack (1985) A Dictionary of Birds. T & AD Poyser. - uses capitals.
 * Thomson, A. Landsborough (1964) A New Dictionary of Birds. McGraw-Hill, New York. - ?NOT KNOWN?
 * Newton, Alfred (1894) A Dictionary of Birds. A. & C. Black. uses capitals.
 * EOL - caps
 * Perrins, Christopher Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Uses "... young in the Common crane above", "A few species such as the lyrebirds and the Marsh warbler show ..." - lower case for generic names and initial caps for species names.
 * Swann, H. Kirke (1913) A dictionary of English and folk-names of British birds. Witherby and Co., London. - uses all caps for "accepted English name"
 * Encylopaedia Britannica. Volume III (1910)
 * Grzimek - uses lower case
 * Birds through an opera-glass (1899) Florence Bailey - world's first field-guide - uses lower case in running text, smallcaps in section titles, capitals in contents page(!)...
 * Audubon - capitals (but probably not a particularly useful example)