>Hal, Paul, and other Tweeters:
>
>The 41st Supplement indeed seemed to create more questions than it
>answered. Sorry for the length of this reply, but hopefully it will help.
>
>Cut and pasted after your recent messages you will find a thread that
>includes clarifying information from Dick Banks, Chair of the AOU Checklist
>Committee. The end of this contains the referenced waterfowl order list.
>Although the waterfowl order is not contained "in" the 41st Supplement,
>this information from the Chair should probably be considered as "official"
>until the 7th Edition is published.
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Phil Davis
>Davidsonville, MD

Thanks, Phil, for posting this information. Two facts are evident: 1) you
had better luck getting answers from the Check-list Committee than we did
here in Washington (State); and 2) none of us is an habitue of Birdchat!
It is interesting to see what can happen when major, rapid changes are
taking place simultaneously in the classification of birds and in the
protocols of information exchange, under the stimulation of new
technologies. I suspect it will take a number of years for the dust to
settle, during which period everybody can expect to be a bit confused and
variously out-of-date. But, no matter how much things change, or how fast,
your experience is a clear demonstration that, to be fully informed, it is
and will remain as true as ever that one needs to keep one's ears open at
the water cooler, and not just rely on the library!





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Hal Opperman - P. O. Box 286 - Medina, Washington 98039 - USA
halop at accessone.com - phone (425) 635-0503 - fax (425) 635-0271
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