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Posted by Alex Harper on 19:35:33 02/25/11
In Reply to: Re: Pheucticus ludovicianus at Cutler Wetlands (apartments side) posted by Confused Novice Birder
Confused Novice Birder,
Toe is using scientific names to report a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The scientific name is not necessarily the Latin name, as not all scientific names are a form of Latin. Also, scientific names need to be italicized or underlined in literature (if we are going to take being technical this seriously!)
In Toe or Trey's defense, I don't know how to italicize text on the TAS board, although I see John Boyd did recently. Care to help, John?
Anyway, Pheucticus refers to the genus name, while ludovicianus refers to the species name. The genus name is always capitalized, and the species name is never capitalized. This system was created by Carl Linnaeus and is known as binomial nomenclature.
Alex Harper
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