Ellen Paul's explanation of the default rules for coding bird names missed one minor point. If the bird's name has three words, then: (1) if the name consists of two descriptive words and one generic word, use the first letter of each of the first two (descriptive) words and the first two letters of the generic word, a la BBMA for Black-billed Magpie (Ellen's example); (2) if the name consists of one descriptive word and a two-word generic phrase, usually hyphenated, use the first two letters of the first word and the first letter of each of the last two words, as in EASO for Eastern Screech-Owl. (How I abhor that hyphen!) Otherwise, it's as Ellen described it. Remember that where two species would have the same abbreviation, there's really no way to tell which gets what, which can be a problem if the birds are unrelated and you therefore don't notice the overlap (Trumpeter Swan and Tree Swallow, for example). Also, for mostly foreign birds, the codes are often three letters and bear no obvious resemblance to the English-language names; for example, should be lucky enough to find a Whiskered Tern at Assateague some day, you are forgiven if you don't remember that the code for the species is KRY. As for the little quiz on how you could come up with CACA using Latin names, two came right to mind, three are seen in the eastern US, and I found four that are seen in North America. My guess is Ellen meant NOCA. Doug Couchman atakdoug@csonline.net Cooperstown, PA