No offense, Jim, but I hope you lose this one. The Yellow Book is supposed to be a reference, not a teaching tool or a source of aggravation. Emily Joyce Crownsville, MD Jlstasz@aol.com wrote: > Hi Folks! > > I will take the entire credit for NOT having an Index on the Yellow Book. > Marshall wanted one, and I believe Bob was not opposed, but I had the final > word and decided against it. My reasoning was simple: if there was an Index, > many fewer world learn the checklist order. > > The order in the current Yellow Book is essentially what had been in use for > many years. The next edition, whenever that may appear, will have all of the > changes recently adopted by the American Ornithologists Union [AOU}. Vultures > will be moved to storks, the ducks rearranged, vireos will be after crows but > before chickadees, and the "cardinal finches" moved to after the blackbirds. > If I have my way again, there will be no Index! :-) > > On another note. The computer graphics program used to create the Yellow > Book was developed in 1985. It does not support modern printers. It is not > Y2K compliant. The 486 that I ran it on has died and my 188 does not have a > 5.25 floppy drive. The next edition will have to be made from scratch. > > Good Birding! > > Jim > > Jim Stasz > North Beach MD > jlstasz@aol.com