For folks who want to keep up with the work of the academic ornithological community, the latest AOU Checklist is in the new issue of the AUK, online at http://www.aoucospubs.org/doi/pdf/10.1642/AUK-16-77.1 Many new scientific species names, and some of higher orders, are listed, beginning on p. 545. Some scientific names of familiar species are changed, as are their places in the systematic organization. The recent inclusions of central America avifauna are welcome, but may temporarily confuse naive users (like me), especially since the common nomenclature used for added species is new and more often subject to revision--not to mention seldom in English. Closer to home, no approved common names for local species have been changed that I can see, but there are lots of changes in scientific names (sandhill crane is now Antigone canadensis, presumably a classical reference to the character of Sophocles' play, via the scientific name of Sarus cranes of the far East). Those of us who share and publish checklists will want to acknowledge and obey these and new systematic orders. We hope these yearly cleansings and orderings of our birds' names will bring us ever closer to understanding nature's mysteries. Bill Whan ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]