Subject: Re: Cascadian Fox Sparrows
Date: Jun 15 13:03:10 1995
From: Don Baccus - donb at Rational.COM


Dennis the tolerant sez:
> Well, I sure hope this beats limericks as a hot topic....

> I think we have a good blend of science, environmentalism, recreation,
> psychology, and art in our group, with the common denominator (usually) of
> birds.

Hear hear!

Three species of fox sparrow proposed? Dennis, how about a roadmap of
the process for decisions on the next AOU checklist? I assume you
know something about schedule, process, etc.

This may start a new thread which conbining science, psychology, and
(the) art (of politics), while impacting environmentalism and recreation!

The common denominator being birds...or the taxonomy thereof.

Having served on ANSI and ISO software standards committees, I'm
curious about whatever light you can shed on the procedural rules
governing changes in species status by the AOU. Much like software
standards, I'm sure there's a procedural skeleton for outlining timeframes
for periodical updates of the checklist, and on rules to determine who
can make proposals, who decides (votes?), who belongs, etc.

In the software standards world, different committees have limited
freedom to adopt rules for adoption or modification of technical
standards. The standards committees of various countries have
different rules - the American committees are very democratic
(anyone can go, anyone can vote) while European committees are
often limited in membership, and International standards are hammered
out by committees of national representatives and invited experts
(I've been an invited expert to one committee - invited by the British
Standards Institute, not my fellow yanks, hmmm...)

I assume taxonomic committees or organizations must have a similar
limited freedom as well - note that the Common Names of birds have
standing and are to be capitalized (according to the AOU), whereas
common names for other classes are not.

And I'm sure there are differences in the governing bodies of
bird taxonomy in various countries, as well.

I'm also interested in the relationship between the AOU and IOU,
and names - does the IOU adopt changes made by the AOU, or limit
itself to decisions impacting species (or possible species) which
extend across national boundaries, or?

I may be alone in this curiousity - I'm the kind of geeky nerd who
finds the sidebars far more interesting than the evidence in the OJ
trial, after all!

More seriously, I'm often asked "who decides to lump or split?"
when I lead a group, teach an Elderhostel, etc and while I have
no problem discussing taxonomy as a dynamic field, with the
current taxonomy being a snapshot of our best, current information
regarding the relationships between genetically distinct populations,
I'm stumped when ask "yes, but WHO decides? HOW do they decide?".

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>