Dennis Paulson wrote:

> I suppose we could argue clines vs.
> step clines vs. truly independent evolution until the cowbirds
> come home, and someone would still have to make somewhat
> arbitrary decisions as to what constitutes a species. The AOU
> check-list committee is now favoring this new concept in its
> decision-making process.

Are you saying that the AOU Check-List Committee has adopted the
phylogenetic species concept? This is news to me. All the new splits I
know of are based on a conservative interpretation of the old biological
species concept. I have yet to see a published checklist of birds for any
region which uses the phylogenetic species concept. Such a checklist
would multiply the number of recognized "species" by about ten-fold.

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Joe Morlan
Albany, CA
jmorlan at slip.net