um, excuse me for sending that last email...i was attempting
to edit it when...oops!

as i was attempting to say...many people are quite familiar
with the "mammalian definition" of a species, but birds do
not seem to conform to that same "definition" since there
are cases where birds in the same family will hybridize and
are capable of producing fertile offspring in the wild. i am
also aware of at least one instance where birds that are in the
same phylum (different families though) produced an infertile
--but definitely alive!--offspring. using these instances as
examples, i have found that the familiar definition of what
constitutes a genus, species and subspecies appears to be
quite vague. can anyone out there help me to understand what
the AOU (or whoever it is that decides these things) actually
uses to define what birds constitute a GENUS, a SPECIES and a
SUBSPECIES?

deborah wisti-peterson
department of zoology
university of washington
seattle, washington USA