regurgitation and species concepts

["John Leonard" <>]

I think almost all birds regurgitate the indigestible parts of whatever they have swallowed. I remember finding some tiny little pellets next to a favourite Red-capped Robin perch.

On the subject of the Biological Species Concept, Mayr and Diamond?s Birds of Northern Melanesia is the latest formulation of this theory and goes into great detail on all the ins and outs (Mayr was the principal author of this theory, I believe). And yes the problem of two populations which don?t overlap (two allopatric populations) is the most serious difficulty with the theory. How do you test whether they would breed together in the wild if they met? (captive birds are often less choosy about breeding with close relatives).

And does anybody know of a comprehensible definition of the PSC? We talk loosely about the ?genetic distance? between populations, but how is this defined?

John Leonard

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John Leonard (Dr)

http://users.bigpond.com/john.leonard

PO Box 243, Woden, ACT 2606, Australia

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