Subject: What is taxonomic order?
Date: Mar 23 17:58:25 2004
From: Kelly Cassidy - lostriver at completebbs.com


No real comments to add about what taxonomic order is, since so many people
have posted excellent responses. (BTW, Burt Guttman makes a good point
about ornithological order not being phylogenetic order. Bird lists are
linear, but bird phylogeny is not.)

I will add a good reason to use ornithological order which is perhaps less
technical. Presumably, this list you're making will be used by people
unfamiliar with birds. (I've forgotten the original post.) It might seem
obvious that it would be easier for those people to find a bird in
alphabetical order. I disagree. If they don't know birds well, they aren't
likely to know names. (How many non-birders know the term "wigeon" or even
"widgeon"?) If they know they're looking at a duck, however, and all the
ducks are together on the list, you've narrowed the possibilities.

If I were you, I would group the names appropriately and supply headings:
"Loons and greebes," "Herons, egrets, and bitterns," etc.

Kelly Cassidy
Pullman