Re:Geo-guide.
Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Wed, 12 May 1999 18:43:15 -0500
Barb,
The treatment of the empids and several other difficult groups of
species are the result of about 15 years of evolution that has been
taking place in the methods of field identification as practiced by the
most advanced birders in the U.S.
Fran and I were lucky enough to spend a week with John Dunne last
winter in Arizona studying sparrows and a lot of the techniques
he was teaching in that course are seen in the 3rd ed NG guide.
I noticed the darker images myself and felt that many of the pictures
I had been unimpressed with in the 2nd edition were more vibrant and
certainly truer to the species as I've seen them in the field.
The changes in the ordering can be laid at the door of the taxonomic
committee of the American Ornithologists Union and reflects some
fairly recent major changes in thinking about taxonomic relationships,
in part due to DNA-DNA hybridization techniques.
The other noticeable change, of course, is the fact that the "splitters"
are currently in the ascendancy. Hurray for "birds in the bank"!
Best,
Norm
Date sent: Wed, 12 May 1999 16:46:33 -0400
From: "Walter L. Meserve Jr." <Skiptech@compuserve.com>
Subject: Re:Geo-guide.
To: "INTERNET:mdosprey@ARI.Net" <mdosprey@ARI.Net>
Send reply to: mdosprey@ARI.Net
> Message text written by Todd Day
> >My overall impression is that the third edition is a tad too dark. I am
> curious to others opinions. <
>
> Todd,
> This was the type of input I was hoping for. I thought that the extra
> black just brought out each individual feather more. And sadly, I see
> there is still no ink that can do justice to a Indigo Bunting ,Vermilion
> Flycatcher or even a Redwinged Blackbird.<g>
> What do you(or anyone else out there) think of the Empid pages?
> Improvement or no? I'm no Empid guru but they certainly are different.
> Another thing I was curious about is why they would change the order of
> the birds. It's going to take me a while to get used to the vireos being
> 60 pages ahead of the warblers now.
>
> Barb Meserve
> skiptech@compuserve.com
>
===============
Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net