I think that "taxonomic order" is something that exists in people's
imaginations.
No two lists that I have come across use the same order - every guide
is different. Each author seems to have his/her own interpretation.
The ordering in S&D is very different to P&K for example.
I agree with Bob that a field guide should be based on observational
order - it makes no sense to have quail and button quail in different
parts of the guide, or similarly to separate treecreepers from
sitellas, gulls/terns from the pelagic birds etc.
Regards, Laurie.
On Friday, March 9, 2007, at 10:26 AM, Peter Shute wrote:
Some comments from a beginning birder, interquoted below:
Once the bird has been identified the user can then refer to
one of umpteen texts to read that author's version of the
birds' sequence in a Taxonomic listing.
As a beginner I was a bit mystified by the ordering (until I read the
introduction that explained it). I guess taxonomic order doesn't help
with identification, but at least it makes it possible to have all the
books use the same order, which I think is useful. I.e. different
authors are going to have different ideas about what looks similar.
Perhaps a compromise is to add some instructions to "see similar birds
on page x". S&D give a few good clues, e.g. the Wilson's Phalarope
picture has an extra Marsh Sandpiper picture beside it.
"What Bird is That" groups them by habitat, which I find a bit useless
in the garden, as they're not in their normal environment.
I don't mind taxonomic order, but it does tend to wear the book out
with
all the extra page flipping. I've added postit flags to the start of
all the main groups to minimise the flipping I have to do. I think one
of the Guides has that built into the book. None of mine do, so I
think
it might be Morcombe, which I don't have.
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