Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!rutgers!clyde!cuae2!ihnp4!drutx!druhi!neal From: neal@druhi.UUCP (Neal D. McBurnett) Newsgroups: rec.birds,sci.bio Subject: Wanted: descriptive database of birds Message-ID: <1525@druhi.UUCP> Date: Tue, 16-Dec-86 14:33:47 EST Article-I.D.: druhi.1525 Posted: Tue Dec 16 14:33:47 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 17-Dec-86 22:00:30 EST Organization: AT&T Information System Labs, Denver, Co Lines: 18 Keywords: flight, coloring, habitat, geographical distribution Xref: mnetor rec.birds:13 sci.bio:65 Frequently, when I see a bird in the field, I only get an incomplete set of observations. However, I suspect that if I had a good database to search, I could frequently identify what I saw. The database could also tell me what other observations would be needed to decide between similar speces. (Maybe I'm really talking about an expert system here...) I'm thinking of queries like flock of birds in central Colorado, November 15th, undulating flight, long and narrow beak, .... Hopefully the database would even have information about how common various birds are so that it could give educated guesses if the data weren't decisive. Has anyone out there ever run into such a database? -Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druhi!neal, 303-538-4852