Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 08:26:55 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Felley Subject: DC birds 2/13 (with James Watson comments) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Yesterday on the Mall, the bird of interest was a large=20 immature Cooper's Hawk "playing" with a flock of pigeons on the Mall side of the Natural History Museum. It took=20 repeated passes at the dodging, whirling, balled-up bunch of birds, then perched on the museum itself for a breather=20 before heading up Constitution Ave. and out of sight. The Tidal Basin was mostly frozen over, with large open areas near both outlets (the Potomac was completely clear of ice). Less than a hundred gulls (Ring-billed,=20 Herring, only a few Greater Black-backed) were sitting on the ice. I use this discussion of Maryland-DC birds to sneak in my 2 cents on James Watson. Let's not forget that he was the originator of the idea that specimen-level biology (specifically=20 taxonomic study) was 'scientific stamp-collecting'. While others have provided E.O.Wilson as a counter example, I would like to also offer Ernst Mayr, 99-year old Harvard Emeritus evolutionary biologist and Darwin scholar, still active (at least last year, to my knowledge), author of many books, originator of the "biological species=20 concept" (yes, the concept of species that suggests lumping the sapsuckers, the northern oriole group, etc.,=20 and liking it!), and much more. Whence came his=20 scientific inspirations? From scientific stamp collecting, just like Darwin and Wilson. =20 Jim=20 (I keep a list of my scientific stamps) =20 Jim Felley Smithsonian Institution irmss668@sivm.si.edu =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================