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From: dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Yellow-legged Gull
Message-ID: <45917@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 13 Nov 90 12:48:51 GMT
References: <1360@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> <153511@kean.ucs.mun.ca>
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No-one has yet answered one part of Daan Sandee's original question:  (to
paraphrase)  "Who or what body actually does the authoritative 'lumping'
and 'splitting' for western Europe??"  Is it just that, somehow, a
concensus of scientific opinion develops?  How do the birders know when the
concensus has reached that stage?

(In North America, the American Ornithologists' Union has a committee on 
taxonomy that 'officially' endorses taxonomic decisions based on published
work.  Same for a different "AOU" in AUstralia.)

David Mark
dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu