The taxonomy element is a
container for a tree composed of taxon elements, describing the arrangement
of taxa in the biological classification. The taxonomy element has exactly one taxon child, representing the root taxon of
the classification (Class Aves, for birds). That
taxon element has child
taxon elements representing the
orders, each order element has child elements
representing the families, and so on down to the
lowest-level ranks.
taxonomy = element taxonomy { taxon }
taxon = element taxon
{ attribute rank { text },
attribute status { ' ' | '?' | '+' }?,
attribute stdAbbr { text }?,
attribute sci { text },
attribute txKey { text },
eng,
taxon*
}
eng = element eng { text }
rank
The rank code for this taxon, e.g.,
“rank='s'”
for a species.
q
The optional q='1'
attribute indicates that the taxon is questionable.
stdAb
If the taxon is a species or form, this attribute gives its standard six-letter bird code.
sci
The taxon's scientific name, e.g.,
“sci='Haliaeetus
leucocephalus'”.
txKey
The taxonomic key number for this taxon. See Section 7.1.1, “Taxonomic key numbers”.
eng
The eng child element contains the
English name of the form, which may include underbar
(“_”) characters to indicate the starting and
ending points of italicized genus and species names.
taxon*
Each taxon element can
have zero or more taxon
child elements describing contained subtaxa.
Here's an example of a complete taxon element at the bottom of the tree:
<taxon rank='x' stdAbbr='BRANTH' sci='Branta bernicla 1'
txKey='01012030100'>
<eng>Brant (_hrota_)</eng>
</taxon>