Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 09:03:12 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bill Ellis Subject: Re: More on Bird Orders Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Marcus and Norm: I think Dave Kidwell put his finger on the Ciconiiformes problem. The assignment of gulls shorebirds, hawks, etc. to the order Ciconiiformes, as shown on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), is based on the published taxonomic list of Sibley and Monroe (1996), based on the DNA-DNA hybridization research of Sibley and Ahlquist. The interpretation of that research has been questioned seriously in the past 10 years, and much has been widely rejected. I cannot understand why ITIS presents it as "reviewed,""complete," and "valid." It is good to keep in mind that taxonomic lists are based on conflicting opinions on the interpretation of scientific data. My preference is to look for agreement among leading taxonomic reference sources, and to feel confident in those areas of agreement. As Norm mentioned, the AOU does not follow Sibley and Monroe for Ciconiiformes. The following sources also tend to agree with the AOU, and not with Sibley and Monroe: Ornithological Council http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET/splists/Ciconiiformescl.html Handbook of the Birds of the World http://www.ornithology.com/Taxonomy/nonpasser1.html Clements, Checklist of Birds of the World, 2000 http://www.bird-stamps.org/clemfam.htm I intend to use the ITIS in the future very carefully, with a lot of skepticism. I do not believe that hawks and gulls belong in the Storks order. Bill Ellis Eldersburg Carroll County ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================