Alan, I don't have time to reply in detail, as it deserves critical
thought, but I'm impressed by your categorization of introduced birds, and
I think you have come up with a good idea. I am printing it out for
consideration by the Washington Bird Records Committee as a model for some
sort of standard that we should incorporate into our continued queries
about "what bird species live in Washington?" Thanks.

And about Monk Parakeets as a substitute for Carolinas: arrgghh, won't
well-intentioned people *ever* learn that introducing species is not a
solution to anything? I have heard that Monk Parakeets are on official hit
lists in several states, ruthlessly extirpated by shotgun-toting game
agents when populations or individuals are detected. They can, as you
wrote, be devastating to agriculture, and--unlike many parrots--thrive in
cold environments.

And yes, Carolina Parakeets did depredate fruit crops and were shot for it,
although they were shot even when they didn't--because it was easy. Like
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, their breeding habitat was the big-tree swamps in
the river bottoms, which got logged heavily. That probably contributed in
a big way to their demise too. What a shame.

Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416