vernacular names

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Kevin Winker wrote:
>
>  English names for birds have been standardized by
> widespread agreement across North America (the AOU "Check-list"
> Committee is the recognized authority or keeper of the flame).
>  We treat them as proper nouns,
> and to my knowledge such standardization has not occurred yet in other
> taxa.

* actually, herpetologists make just as much a fuss about lists and
standardizing (and capitalizing) English names as ornithologists do:

NEWS RELEASE
The Center for North American Herpetology
Lawrence, Kansas http://www.cnah.org
4 March 2005

The Center for North American Herpetology is pleased to announce that
the pdf version of

Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American
Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians. Fifth Edition (2002) by
Joseph T. Collins and  Travis W. Taggart

is now available online at:

http://www.cnah.org/cnah_pdf.asp (enter 'Collins' and '2002' in the
search windows)

The first edition of this compilation, published in 1978, listed 454
species of  amphibians, turtles, reptiles, and crocodilians, and was
quickly adopted  nationwide as a source for common names for these North
American (north of  Mexico) animals that could be consistently used
worldwide to avoid confusion, both in spelling and during
conversation...

fred.
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           Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad, Jennifer Helene Schueler
      RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
     (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca
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