================= Begin forwarded message =================

From: john at NMT.EDU ("John W. Shipman")
To: BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: CBC database 5.05 now available
Date: Sat, 25 Oct


The Christmas Bird Count Database Project has released version
5.05 of the database, containing 56 years of data for North
America and Hawaii---the first 12 counts (1900-1911) and the
52nd-95th counts (1951-1994).

All files are available via FTP at:

ftp://ftp.nmt.edu/pub/people/john/cbc/

A copy of the README.CBC file from this directory is appended
below. Please let me know if you have any questions about
this project or these files.

John Shipman, john at nmt.edu, http://www.nmt.edu/~shipman
Zoological Data Processing, 507 Fitch NW, Socorro, NM 87801 USA

==== file README.CBC ====

CBC database distribution 5.05, October 25, 1997

Files are in PKZIP format. Refer to cbcers.ps and nomo.ps
(PostScript documentation) for full descriptions of the files.
All data are in the public domain and available at:

ftp://ftp.nmt.edu/pub/people/john/cbc/

This release contains 56 full counts: 1st-12th and 52nd-95th.

If you downloaded a previous version, refer to the version
numbers in the list below to see which files have changed.

================================================================

NOTES ON RELEASE 5.05

- Three new years added, 52nd-54th.

- There had been two records in the `eff' file for count id
067-0145 and none for count id 067-0537. These records have
been corrected in the database to read:

0670145 19661225 5 250 50 200 0 2200 200 2000 0
0670537 19661225 5 190 40 150 0 2150 50 2100 0

- All the records in the `eff' file for the 59th CBC had been
duplicated. The duplicates have been removed.

- The three `std' records in the previous release that had been
referred to lat-long 0000-00000 have now been resolved.

================================================================

NOTES ON RELEASE 5.04

ALL FILES HAVE CHANGED in this release, so be sure to reload all
your databases if they contain any files from older releases.

Code AMEGOL, formerly the code for American Goldfinch, is now an
invalid code due to collision with the name ``American
Goldeneye,'' a synonym for Common Goldeneye that was used in the
58th and earlier counts. Here is the disambiguation of this
collision:

Wrong: Right:
AMEGOL AMEGEY American Goldeneye (= Common Goldeneye)
AMEGFI American Goldfinch

WARNING! Data entry for the 1st-12th counts and the 57th-58th
counts was completed before I realized that I was using code
AMEGOL for two completely different species, so it is especially
important to replace any files from releases 5.03 or earlier.

================================================================

NOTES ON RELEASE 5.03

The format of the `aou640.tre' file changed in this release. A
new field of size 6 has been added between the phylogenetic
sequence number and the scientific name. This field holds the
standard 6-letter code for a species or subspecific form, but is
blank for higher taxa. This is necessary so that someone who
looks up a code in the `aou640.ab6' file will be able to tell
whether that code is the standard code or a variant. The
`nomo.ps' documentation file has been updated to reflect this
change.

Also, the `cbcers.ps' document was updated to clarify that a
value of -1 is being used to signify unknown values, not -9999 as
in some older versions.

================================================================
LIST OF FILES

File/contents Updated Description
----------------------------------------------------------------
README.FTP 5.05 The file you are now reading

doc.zip: 5.04
cbcers.ps Database specification
nomo.ps Nomenclatural base specification

aou640.zip: 5.05
aou640.std Standard names (source form)
aou640.alt Alternate names (source form)
aou640.tre Taxonomic tree file (flat file)
aou640.ab6 Six-letter abbreviations (flat file)
aou640.col Six-letter collisions (flat file)

db.zip: 5.05
cir Circle file (defines each latlong)
std Standard linkage file (relates counts to latlongs)
aspub As-published circle names file
eff Effort file
wea Weather file

The bulk of the data is in the census (.cen) files:
0112.zip 5.04 1.cen -> 12.cen
5254.zip 5.05 52.cen -> 54.cen
5559.zip 5.04 55.cen -> 59.cen
6069.zip 5.04 60.cen -> 69.cen
7079.zip 5.04 70.cen -> 79.cen
8084.zip 5.04 80.cen -> 84.cen
8589.zip 5.04 85.cen -> 89.cen
9094.zip 5.04 90.cen -> 94.cen
95.zip 5.04 95.cen

================================================================

Zoological Data Processing
John W. Shipman
507 Fitch Avenue NW
Socorro, NM 87801
(505) 835-0235
john at nmt.edu; http://www.nmt.edu/~shipman/



--
********************************* I am but mad north-north-west;
* Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR * when the wind is southerly,
* mpatters at orednet.org * I know a hawk from a handsaw.
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters -ws