As the fall migration is gets underway, I stumbled on this artlice in today's New York Times about why taxonomy matters. I thought some of the folks on the list might, too, As Carol Yoon writes,"it is by classifying nature that we come to know it in all its beetleness and daffodility. I might add sparrowness and tealadility. (Sorry, Carol.)
Based on her book "Naming Nature," the piece posits that our quest to differentiate between a swamp white oak and other white oaks, or among the different sparrows -- a tough task for this old bird -- is a way of connecting to and burrowing deeper into nature. I thought it might appeal to some on the list serve; if not, please accept my apologies and delete. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/science/11naming.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&th&emc=th Good birding to all. Rob Daves South Minneapolis ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
