Talk:Francolin

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[edit] Naming conventions

I would like to create an article on Gray Francolins (Francolinus pondicerianus) but I see that this article and a number of sites list it as Grey Francolin. Since Gray Francolin gets more hits, I'm leaning towards that title. Any comments are appreciated. --Viriditas 11:56, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

This is because most internet sites are American, and use Gray - it is an Old World species, most if not all of the field guides for the relevant area use Grey, so it is correct at the present spelling jimfbleak 17:43, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. The American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds (Seventh Edition) lists Francolinus pondicerianus as Gray Francolin, not grey. [1]. Can you comment? --Viriditas 09:48, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

The British Ornithologists' Union has Catharus minimus as Grey-cheeked Thrush: national lists use local spelling. Grey Francolin is native to India. Both Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse by Madge and McGowan, ISBN 0-7136-3966-0, the standard family text, and Birds of India by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, ISBN 0-691-04910-6 use the standard Grey spelling (Indian English uses British spelling, as you would expect).

The fact that this species is on the N Am list as an introduced species is not a good reason to overturn this species' English name in its native range - on that basis I could move Gray-cheeked Thrush to Grey-cheeked Thrush, since that's its spelling on the BOU list, and it has arrived naturally as a vagrant (saw one yesterday!)

Most logical solution is main article at Grey Francolin, with redirects from Gray and the lower case version jimfbleak 13:37, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

That's certainly one solution, and I don't feel strongly either way, however it seems that the most neutral solution would be for both common names to redirect to Francolinus pondicerianus as the article name. What's wikipedia house style in this instance? --Viriditas 09:06, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Policy is article should be under the English name, it's bound to be moved if under the scientific name. What's wrong with Grey Francolin? Even I have gritted my teeth and written eg Gray Catbird because it's a N Am species. jimfbleak 19:57, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Nothing is wrong with "Grey Francolin". I'm just looking to see what policy is on this issue and I don't see anything at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (fauna) or Wikipedia:Naming conflict, however I do find the Manual of Style helpful. "Articles that focus on a topic specific to a particular English-speaking country should generally conform to the spelling of that country." --Viriditas 01:18, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

yes, in practice this has not been significant problem - species that are most closely linked with either the Old or New World are given the appropriate spelling, with a redirect and note of alternative names in the text. Species that are widespread in NAm and Europe tend to have the article under the name used by the first editor (eg Arctic Skua rather than Parasitic Jaeger), which has worked without problems jimfbleak 06:17, 22 November 2005 (UTC)