I don't quite understand the concern. Allow me to express what I hope is
obvious. Evolution is an ongoing process, which means it is happening
now. At any one time, most species are and should be distinct but some
small number of species will be in various stages of separation.
Suggesting a consistent list is helpful but suggesting that there should
always be a correct answer is flawed. Then impose our various ways
(differences of opinions etc) on what constitutes enough distinction, of
interpreting these dividing lines and of course there would be troubles.
I would hate the idea of a different list every year and wouldn't be too
comfortable about the costs of doing the committee David suggests,
relative to the expenditure of those funds on more practical things. Of
course knowing about species diversity is important to doing the
conservation etc.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of David Kowalick
Sent: Tuesday, 4 January 2011 11:11 AM
To:
Subject: World Checklists, Grass wrens,Official list of Oz
birds etc...
Hi everyone,
This is all very confusing. What constitutes an accepted split? Where
does the Myall subspecies of the Thick-belled Grasswren fall? Western or
what? And what of the the C&B list? What do we take as the official
list? The world list or C&B? These days I always try to tick every
sub-species just in case it ends up being split later on. It seems
splitting very much back in fashion but it seems impossible to keep
abreast of all the developments. Surely there could be a committee set
up by Birds Australia to review the official Australian list on an
annual basis that takes into account all the latest developments? I have
always lived and died by C&B but recently that seems to no longer be the
case.In the meantime I will try not to drown in the data.
Cheers
David Kowalick
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
