Easy enough, but what about sparrow or English sparrow, robin or 
American robin, rainbow trout, tiger-swallowtail, California king snake, 
queen conch, thorny oyster, nerite or bleeding-tooth nerite?

Tom E.


On 11/11/2016 1:01 AM, Ron G. Noseworthy wrote:
> Hi, everyone!
>
> There are common nouns, such as boy, dog, and book; these are not capitalized.  Proper nouns are names of specific things and are capitalized, such as Tom, Butch, and American Seashells.   As an English teacher, I taught this for many years.
>
> Regards,
> Ron Noseworthy
>
> --------------------------------------------
> On Fri, 11/11/16, worldwide <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>   Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] Common names and capital letters
>   To: [log in to unmask]
>   Received: Friday, November 11, 2016, 2:43 PM
>   
>   Based on the outcome of conventions
>   created for
>   the AFS names project they ended up out of sync
>   with the Associated Press Stylebook, the bible of news
>   writers.
>   
>   For animal names such as the dog, the frog, or
>   the thrush, the names are lower case.  Specific
>   animals names are to be Capitalized, e.g. Painted Frog or
>   Ruby-Throated Thrush.
>   
>   Rich
>   
>   At 09:21 PM 11/10/2016, you wrote:
>   >Dear Leslie,
>   >
>   >It certainly would be great if you could
>   >document all of this when time permits.
>   >
>   >Intuition and admittedly enfeebled recollection
>   >lead me to believe the use of lower case for the
>   >initial letters of vernacular names has a more
>   >deep-seated origin/philosophy than mere simplicity of
>   keyboard operation.
>   >
>   >Harry
>   >
>   >PS: POV must mean point of view - and AFS American
>   Fisheries Society. HGL
>   >
>   >
>   >At 08:51 PM 11/10/2016, Leslie Crnkovic wrote:
>   >>Hello Susan,
>   >>
>   >>To provide a historical perspective...
>   >>Going back to the 1988 1st edition of the AFS
>   >>Common and Scientific Names of Mollusca... Turgeon
>   et al
>   >>
>   >>When working on a research paper some 12 to 14
>   >>years ago, I actually interviewed Turgeon on the
>   matter.
>   >>The reasoning at that time (consider the state
>   >>of the PC and Typewriter of the late 80s), the
>   >>POV of the AFS was that it was extra effort to
>   >>make sure that each word was capitalized and to
>   >>assure consistency they standardized all lower
>   >>case.  Note, they were doing Fish and Crustacea
>   also.
>   >>
>   >>R. Tucker Abbott was deeply involved in the
>   >>original debate, and ultimately lost the battle
>   >>to capitalize these 'formal' names.  Abbott
>   >>wrote several articles on the topic (don’t
>   >>have access to the references at the moment),
>   >>in one article I remember was him referencing
>   >>an article he wrote called "Non-Capps Poops"
>   >>but it that appears to have never been
>   >>published.  Best guess is it was submitted to
>   Astronaut Trail Shell Club.
>   >>
>   >>Hope that helps,
>   >>
>   >>Leslie Crnkovic
>   >>San Jacinto College
>   >>
>   >>
>   

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