I believe that good philosophers fly alone, like eagles, and not in flocks like starlings. It is true that because eagles are rare birds they are little seen and less heard, while birds that fly like starlings fill the sky with shrieks and cries, and wherever they settle befoul the earth beneath them.---Galileo



I was in the minority in rejecting Frost and Etheridge's taxonomic rearrangement of the iguanian lizards, but I had plenty of good company. Veteran herpetologists like George Zug, James D. Lazell, and P. C. H. Pritchard rejected Frost and Etheridge's destructive proposal. I would much rather follow the flight paths of the eagles than to flock with the starlings, who will befoul the literature in the years to come by referring to the North American species of Elaphe as "Pantherophis."



Galileo says: "I decided to stand openly, alone, on the theater of the world, to bear witness to the sober truth. ...I wanted people to understand that Nature not only gave them eyes to see her works, but brains to make them capable of understanding them."



Indeed, good scientists are able to stand alone because they have the brains to understand Nature and the reasons behind the latest taxonomic proposals. Those who do not understand the rationale for the new proposals but who seek safety in numbers will simply flock with the starlings, adopt the new proposals blindly and befoul the literature with references to contrived genera that are morphologically indistinguishable from Elaphe.

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